ERIES 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


TUE  CAMP-FIKK     P.  oo. 


MARY  GAY;  OK,  WORK  FOR  GIRLS 
BY  JACOB  ABBOTT. 


IN  FOUR  VOLUMES. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  H.  W.  HERRICK. 


WORK  FOR   WINTER. 


NEW   YORK: 

PUBLISHED  BY  KURD  AND  HOUGHTON, 
:  ilttenffir* 
1876. 


THE   MARY   GAY  SERIES. 


I.    WORK  FOR  WINTER. 
II.    WORK  FOR  SPRING. 
HI.    WORK  FOR  SUMMER. 
IV.    WORK  FOR  AUTUMN. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 

IICRD  AND   HOCGHTON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


RIYERSIDB,  CAMBRIDGE: 

ITIKKOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BT 
H.   0.  HOUGHTON  AND  COMPANT. 


TZIO 

q 

.- 

\ '  i  i 

TO   THE  PARENT. 

THE  object  of  this  series  is  to  assist  girla 
to  occupy  themselves,  and  to  aid  the  par- 
ent in  finding  amusement  and  employment 
for  them,  by  explaining  to  them  the  nature 
of  various  operations  of  a  more  or  less 
mechanical  nature,  which  they  can  safely 
and  properly  perform  with  the  assistance 
of  the  instructions  here  given. 

Many  of  the  readers  of  the  books  will 
perhaps  actually  undertake  some  of  the  op- 
erations here  described,  and  so  reduce  the 
instructions  to  practice.  Others  will  not  do 
this ;  but  the  author  hopes  that  these  also 
may  derive  pleasure  and  advantage  from 
the  perusal  of  the  books,  through  the  knowl- 
edge which  they  may  acquire  from  them 
of  the  properties  of  various  substances  in 

622769 


4  TO   THE   PARENT. 

common  use,  and  the  principles  involved  in 
many  ordinary  processes  such  as  their  years 
and  their  state  of  mental  development  ena- 
ble them  to  comprehend  and  appreciate, 
and  which  the  incidents  narrated  in  the 
several  volumes,  and  the  conversations  ac- 
companying them,  are  intended  to  eluci- 
date and  explain. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  I 

I.   ABOUT  KNITTING      ...  7 

II.   ABOUT  TEACHING        .  i3 

III.  THE  SLEIGH-RIDE    ...  20 

IV.  BAKING-DAY        ....  30 

V.    JOTHAM   JONES  ...  39 

VI.  THE  CAMP-FIRE   ...  50 

VII.  TOM  JINGO         ...  .63 

VIII.  THE  JUNK-STORE        .                 .  74 

IX.   THE  GLASS  BELLS    .  .87 

X.  THE  ART  OF  TEACHING             .  98 

XL   PASTE,  GUM,  AND  GLUE  .     108 

XII.   ABOUT  HOT  WATER   ...  118 

XTTI.    THE  BOXES 127 

XIV.   AnouT  DRYING    ....  141 

XV.   A  JANUARY  THAW  .        .        .  .157 

XVI.   EQUAL  PARTITION       ...  168 

XVII.  MAKING  PICTURE-BOOKS         .  .178 

XVIII.    CONCLUDING  ADVICE  .  190 


ENGRAVINGS. 


PAQI 


THE  CAMP-FIRE Frontispiece. 

THE  GAME  OF  TOM  JINGO 63 

COVERING  THE  BOXES 132 


MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN   WINTER. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ABOUT    KNITTING. 

ONE  pleasant  morning  in  December, 
Mary  Gay  and  her  sister  Luly,  having  just 
come  in  from  play,  were  warming  them- 
selves by  the  fire.  Their  mother  was  sit- 
ting near  a  window  at  the  back  side  of  the 
room. 

Luly  took  off  her  things  and  put  them 
away,  but  Mary  sat  still,  with  her  cloak  and 
her  bonnet  and  mittens  still  on,  and  seemed 
lost  in  thought.  Her  mother,  on  looking  at 
her,  observed  that  her  countenance  wore  a 
disappointed  and  sorrowful  expression. 

"  Well,  Mary,"  said  her  mother,  "what  is 
the  trouble  now  ?  " 

"Why,  nothing,  mother,"  said  Mary, — 
"  only  I  can't  think  of  anything  I  can  do  for 
cousin  John  to  pay  him  for  making  a  sled 
for  me." 


8  MARY  GAY'S   WOI!K   IX   WINTER. 

Then,  after  a  pause,  she  added,  speaking 
in  a  disconsolate  and  sorrowful  tone,  — 

"  There  is  not  anything  at  all  that  girls 
can  do. 

"  Now,  John,"  she  continued,  after  a  mo- 
ment's pause,  "  has  got  a  nice  shop  and 
tools,  and  he  can  make  a  thousand  things 
that  are  very  useful.  But  girls  can't  have 
a  shop,  and  if  they  could,  they  could  not 
use  the  tools;  and  there  is  not  anything 
that  we  can  do  but  make  silly  little  book- 
marks and  such  things,  that  are  of  no  real 
use  at  all." 

"  I  should  think  that  John  would  be  will- 
ing to  make  you  a  sled  without  any  pay," 
said  Mrs.  Gay. 

"  He  is  willing,"  replied  Mary.  "  He  says 
he  does  not  wish  for  any  pay  at  all.  But  I 
want  to  pay.  I  do  not  like  to  have  him  all 
the  time  doing  things  for  me,  while  I  never 
do  anything  for  him." 

"  Could  you  not  knit  him  a  pair  of  mit- 
tens ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Gay. 

"  Yes,"  exclaimed  Mary,  eagerly, "  I  could 
do  that,  I  verily  believe.  I  could  knit  him 
a  pair  of  mittens.  Boys  are  always  losing 
their  mittens  or  wearing  them  out  in  slid- 
ing, and  so  they  want  new  ones." 


ABOUT   KNITTING.  9 

"Perhaps  you  might  mend  the  mittens 
he  has  now,"  said  Mrs.  Gay.  "  There  is 
a  difficulty  about  knitting  new  mittens,  and 
that  is,  you  have  to  buy  the  yarn." 

"  Does  it  cost  a  great  deal  to  buy  the 
yarn  ?  "  asked  Mary. 

"  Yes,"  said  her  mother,  "  almost  as  much 
as  the  mittens  are  worth  when  they  are 
done" 

Mary  said  that  she  did  not  see  how  this 
could  be,  for  people  who  knit  mittens  must 
certainly  have  some  pay  for  knitting  them. 

Her  mother  explained  to  her  how  it  hap- 
pened that  there  was  so  little  profit  in  buy- 
ing yarn  and  knitting  mittens  and  stock- 
ings. When  you  buy  yarn  you  have  to  pay 
not  only  the  cost  of  producing  the  wool  and 
spinning  the  yarn,  but  also  the  profit  which 
the  farmer  himself  wishes  to  make  on  the 
produce  of  his  farm,  and  also  that  of  the 
merchant  or  storekeeper  who  sells  it  to 
you.  This  last  makes  the  yam  cost  you  a 
good  deal  more  than  it  does  the  farmer's 
wife  or  daughter,  who  knits  the  yarn  that 
she  has  spun  herself  out  of  wool  which  has 
grown  on  the  backs  of  the  sheep  on  her  hus- 
band's or  father's  land. 


10     MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IX  WINTER. 

Then,  besides  this,  the  farmers'  wives  and 
daughters  have  a  great  deal  of  spare  time 
that  they  can  spend  in  knitting,  which 
would  otherwise  be  entirely  lost,  and  they 
are  glad  to  have  the  knitting  to  do  even  if 
they  get  very  little  for  it.  And  the  number 
of  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  is  so  vast 
in  the  country  at  large,  that  a  great  quan- 
tity of  coarse  mittens  and  stockings  are 
produced,  which  can  be  bought  for  but  lit- 
tle more  than  you  would  have  to  give  for 
the  yarn  to  knit  them  from,  if  you  were  to 
buy  the  yarn  with  a  view  of  doing  the  knit- 
ting yourself. 

When  Mary  heard  this  explanation  she 
was  convinced  that  it  was  the  true  one,  and 
she  felt  quite  discouraged  about  earning 
any  money  in  that  way. 

"  You  might  mend  Johnny's  mittens,  at 
any  rate,"  said  Mrs.  Gay,  "when  he  gets 
holes  in  them." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  eagerly,  "  I  can  do 
that.  He  and  Benny  are  always  getting 
holes  in  their  mittens." 

So  Mary  very  wisely  determined  that  her 
first  work  in  the  way  of  being  useful  to 
John  should  be  in  mending  his  mittens. 


ABOUT  KNITTING.  11 

She  had  learned  to  darn  very  well.  She 
liked  to  do  it.  It  amused  her  to  watch  the 
progress  of  the  work,  as  she  first  laid  a 
series  of  threads  parallel  to  each  other  over 
the  hole  in  one  direction,  and  then  crossed 
them  with  others  at  right  angles. 

Luly  used  to  sit  by  her  and  watch  her 
while  she  was  doing  this,  and  often  wished 
that  she  could  do  so  too. 

"  Mary,"  she  would  say,  "  I  wish  you 
would  teach  me  to  darn." 

"  I  will,"  Mary  would  reply  ;  "  I  will  some 
day,  —  when  you  get  a  little  bigger." 

"  Oh,  dear  me ! "  Luly  would  exclaim, 
with  a  disconsolate  sigh,  "  I  wish  I  could 
only  get  bigger.  When  shall  I  get  bigger, 
Mary  ?  " 

The  next  time  that  Mary's  cousin  John 
came  to  the  house,  the  first  thing  that  Mary 
did  was  to  make  an  inspection  of  his  mit- 
tens. She  found,  to  her  great  joy,  a  small 
hole  in  each  of  the  thumbs. 

"  Now,  John,"  said  she,  "  I  have  found 
something  I  can  do  for  you  to  pay  for  mak- 
ing my  sled.  I  can  mend  your  mittens." 

"  Yes,"  replied  John,  "  I  should  like  to 
have  my  mittens  mended  very  much." 


12  MARY  GAY'T  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  Then  take  them  right  off  and  give  them 
to  me.  I  will  have  them  all  mended  nicely 
by  the  time  that  you  come  to-morrow." 

"  But  what  shall  I  have  to  wear  in  the 
meantime  ?  "  said  John.  "  I  can't  go  a  whole 
day  without  any  mittens." 

"  Have  n't  you  got  any  other  pair  ?  "  asked 
Mary. 

"  No,"  said  John,  —  "  only  these." 

"  Has  n't  Benny  got  a  pair  that  he  could 
lend  you  ?  "  asked  Mary. 

"  Hoh  !  "  exclaimed  John,  "  Benny's  mit- 
tens are  not  half  big  enough  for  me." 

"  I  wish  you  had  two  pairs  of  mittens," 
said  Mary,  "  and  then  while  I  was  mending 
one  pair  you  could  wear  the  other." 

"  Yes,"  said  John,  "  I  wish  I  had ;  but  I 
have  not." 

Here  was  a  difficulty.  Mary  could  mend 
the  mittens  well  enough,  but  John  could  not 
do  without  them  long  enough  to  allow  her 
time. 

So,  after  making  his  visit  and  doing  his 
errand,  John  went  away  again,  —  wearing 
his  mittens  back  with  the  holes  in  the 
thumbs,  just  as  he  came. 


ABOUT  TEACHING.  13 


CHAPTER   II. 

ABOUT    TEACHING. 

MARY  soon  after  this  told  her  mother  that 
she  could  not  manage  to  mend  John's  mit- 
tens, for  he  could  not  spare  them  long 
enough  to  give  her  time,  inasmuch  as  he 
only  had  one  pair.  So  she  asked  her  moth- 
er if  she  could  not  think  of  something  else 
that  she  could  do  for  him  to  pay  for  the 
sled. 

"  No,"  said  her  mother,  "  I  do  not  think 
of  anything  but  mending  and  knitting;  but 
I  have  thought  of  a  way  by  which  you  can 
earn  some  yarn  and  so  knit  him  a  new  pair 
of  mittens,  and  that  is  by  teaching  Luly  to 
darn.  She  is  six  or  seven  years  old  now, 
and  is  old  enough  to  learn  to  darn ;  and 
you  might  teach  her."  * 

*  In  the  books  entitled,  "John  Gay;  or,  Work  for  Boys," 
Mary  and  her  sister  Luly  are  often  spoken  of,  but  Luly  was 
then  only  about  four  years  old.  That  was  two  years  before 
the  present  time,  and  of  course  Luly  was  now  two  years  older. 
So  were  Mary  and  John ;  and  John  was  much  stronger  and 
more  capable,  and  could  now  easily  make  a  good  many  things 
that  he  was  then  only  just  learning  to  make. 


14  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

Mary  said  she  was  perfectly  willing  to 
teach  Luly  to  darn,  if  she  was  only  willing 
to  learn. 

"That  is  just  the  difficulty,"  said  her 
mother.  "  Luly  will  be  ready  enough  to 
begin  to  learn,  but  she  will  not  be  inclined 
to  persevere ;  and  what  you  will  have  to  do 
is  by  skilful  management  to  encourage  her, 
and  draw  her  on  from  step  to  step,  until  she 
has  learned.  I  will  consider  that  she  has 
learned  as  soon  as  you  can  show  me  two 
holes  as  big  as  a  postage-stamp  that  she 
has  darned  neatly,  and  woven  the  cross 
threads  in  all  right.  And  then  I  will  give 
you  yarn  enough  to  knit  a  pair  of  mittens 
for  John." 

Mary  was  quite  pleased  with  this  plan. 
She  thought  that  she  should  earn  the  money 
very  easily,  but  her  mother  told  her  that  she 
would  not  earn  it  easily,  by  any  means. 

"  If  Luly  was  really  willing  to  learn,"  said 
her  mother,  "  and  had  all  the  necessary  pa- 
tience and  perseverance,  so  that  you  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  show  her  how  to  man- 
age her  needle  and  weave  the  threads  in 
properly  by  carrying  each  one  of  the  second 
set  of  threads  alternately  above  and  below 


ABOUT   TEACHING.  15 

those  of  the  first  set,  then,  instead  of  earn- 
ing yarn  enough  to  knit  a  pair  of  mittens 
by  teaching  her,  you  would  hardly  earn 
enough  to  pay  for  one  needleful  to  mend 
them  with." 

Mary  looked  quite  serious  and  thought- 
ful while  her  mother  was  saying  these 
things. 

"  Luly  will  begin  very  zealously,  no 
doubt,"  continued  Mrs.  Gay,  "  but  she  will 
get  tired  very  soon  ;  and  as  soon  as  she 
conies  to  any  difficulty,  or  makes  mistakes 
or  failures,  she  will  be  discouraged,  and 
it  will  require  a  great  deal  of  skill  and 
good  management  on  your  part  to  induce 
her  to  go  on.  And  it  will  be  by  the  ex- 
ercise of  this  skill  and  good  management 
that  you  will  earn  your  pay." 

"  But,  mother,"  said  Mary,  "  I  will  tell  you 
what  I  think  would  be  a  good  plan.  Sup- 
pose you  make  a  rule  that  Luly  must  come 
to  me  for  a  certain  time  every  day,  and  work 
diligently  in  darning,  or  learning  to  darn. 
It  might  be  for  half  an  hour,  or  for  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  if  you  think  half  an  hour 
would  be  too  long." 

"  That  would  be  a  pretty  good  plan,"  said 


16  MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

Mrs.  Gay,  "  I  suppose.  There  would  have 
to  be  a  punishment,  or  penalty  of  some  sort, 
in  case  Luly  at  any  time  would  not  obey 
the  rule.  A  rule  without  a  punishment  or 
penalty  is  nothing  at  all." 

"  Why  you  see,  mother,  if  Luly  would 
not  come  when  I  called  her,"  said  Mary, 
"  or  would  not  attend  to  her  work,  then  I 
could  tell  you,  and  you  could  make  her  go 
and  sit  in  the  corner,  or  something  like 
that." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Gay,  "  that  would  be 
a  very  good  way  ;  but  then  that  is  throwing 
the  most  disagreeable  and  difficult  part  of 
the  business  of  teaching  Luly  to  darn  upon 
me,  instead  of  providing  for  you  to  do  it 
yourself.  I  was  trying  to  contrive  some 
way  for  you  to  earn  the  yarn  by  taking 
charge  of  Luly's  learning  to  darn ;  but  your 
plan,  though  very  good  in  itself,  puts  the 
chief  part  of  the  work  upon  me,  so  that  1 
should  earn  the  yarn  in  fact,  and  not  you."- 

"  But,  mother,  I  should  do  all  the  teach- 
ing." 

"  True,"  replied  her  mother.  "  You  would 
the  actual  teaching,  and  so  I  was  wrong  in 
saying  that  I  should  earn  the  yarn  and  not 


ABOUT  TEACHING.  17 

you.  But  I  should  earn  a  large  part  of 
it." 

"  I  don't  think  you  would  earn  a  very 
large  part  of  it,  mother,"  said  Mary,  "  for  it 
would  not  be  much  that  you  would  do. 
You  would  only  make  the  rule,  and  then 
when  I  told  you  that  Luly  would  not  work, 
you  would  only  have  to  call  her  to  come 
and  sit  in  the  corner." 

"  That  seems  not  to  be  a  great  deal,  I  ad- 
mit," said  Mrs.  Gay  ;  «  but  it  is  a  great  deal 
after  all,  not  on  account  of  the  time  it 
would  take,  but  on  account  of  the  disagree- 
ableness  and  painfulness  of  it.  Perhaps  I 
should  be  busy  in  some  way,  —  it  might  be 
in  reading,  or  writing  a  letter,- — and  you 
come  to  me  to  complain  that  Luly  won't 
attend  to  her  work.  This  of  itself,  of  course, 
not  only  interrupts  me,  but  it  disturbs  and 
troubles  me.  I  can't  really  blame  such  a 
little  thing  as  Luly  for  preferring  play  to 
learning  to  darn,  or  for  getting  easily  tired 
and  perplexed  in  learning  such  a  difficult 
thing  as  darning  must  be  to  her.  But  yet 
it  is  necessary,  if  I  have  made  a  rule,  that 
she  should  obey  it ;  so  I  have  to  call  her  to 
me,  and  send  her  into  the  corner  for  punish- 


18  MARY   GAY'S  WORK   IN   WINTER. 

rnent.  All  the  time  that  she  is  there  I  can- 
not help  pitying  her.  Even  if  she  did  not 
cry,  she  would  look  so  distressed  and  un- 
happy that  I  could  not  go  on  with  my  writ- 
ing,  or  my  work,  whatever  it  might  be,  with 
any  peace  or  comfort.  Indeed,  I  think  that 
of  the  two  I  would  much  rather  attend  to 
the  whole  business  of  teaching  her  to  darn 
myself,  than  to  force  her  to  attend  to  an- 
other person's  teaching." 

Mary  perceived  that  what  her  mother  said 
was  clearly  reasonable,  and  she  was  silent. 

"  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  give  you  the 
money  to  buy  yarn  to  knit  the  mittens  with, 
if  you  like  that  way,"  said  Mrs.  Gay.  «  But 
I  supposed  that  you  were  setting  your 
heart  on  earning  it  yourself." 

"  Yes,  mother,  I  am,"  said  Mary. 

"  And  on  really  earning  it,  and  not  merely 
making  believe  earn  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mary.  "  I  want  to  earn 
it  myself,  really  and  truly." 

"  Very  well,  then,"  said  her  mother;  "try 
and  see  if  you  can  devise  easy  and  pleas- 
ant ways  of  teaching  Luly  to  darn,  without 
giving  me  any  trouble  or  concern  about  it. 
If  you  can,  you  will  have  fully  earned  the 


ABOUT  TEACHING.  19 

yarn.  I  would  gladly  give  any  one  the 
value  of  the  yarn  required  to  make  a  pair 
of  mittens  for  doing  that.  But  I  would  not 
give  anybody  the  value  of  the  yarn  to  knit 
even  one  thumb  for  just  showing  Luly  how 
to  take  the  stitches  in  learning  to  darn,  if  I 
must  have  the  trouble  of  forcing  her  to  go 
to  her  work  every  day,  and  to  pay  attention 
to  the  instructions." 

Mary  sat  silent  and  thoughtful  a  few 
minutes  after  her  mother  had  finished 
speaking,  and  then  looking  up,  with  a 
cheerful  and  animated  countenance,  she 
said, — 

«  Well,  mother,  I  '11  try." 


20  MAIIY    GAY'S   WORK   IN  WIXTKR. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    SLEIGH-RIDE. 

MARY  would  have  liked  to  ask  her  mother 
to  give  her  some  advice  or  directions  in  re- 
gard to  the  best  way  of  managing  with 
Luly,  to  keep  up  her  interest  in  learning  to 
darn,  and  inducing  her  to  per-evrre  patient- 
ly until  she  had  learned,  but  she  thought 
she  must  not  do  this,  a*  it  was  a  part  of  the 
agreement  that  she  was  to  do  the  whole 
work  herself,  and  that  her  mother  was  to 
have  no  trouble  about  it. 

She  was,  however,  mistaken  in  this  sup- 
position. .  It  was  indeed  the  agreement 
that  she  was  not  to  give  her  mother  any 
trouble  in  managing  the  affair,  but  it  would 
not  have  caused  Mrs.  G.  any  trouble,  but 
pleasure  rather,  to  have  given  her  daugh- 
ter some  general  advice  beforehand,  in  re- 
spect to  the  way  in  which  she  was  to  pro- 
ceed. A  mother  generally  likes  very  much 
to  give  her  daughter  advice  or  instruction 


THE  SLEIGH-RIDE.  21 

of  any  kind,  when  she  asks  for  it  at  a 
proper  time  and  in  a  proper  way,  and  not 
in  connection  with  any  difficulty,  or  quarrel, 
or  wrong-doing  of  any  kind.  To  have  Mary 
begin  to  teach  Luly,  and  get  into  difficulty 
with  her,  and  then  come  to  her  mother  to 
settle  the  dispute,  and  perhaps  punish  Luly 
for  breaking  some  rule,  would  be  a  very 
disagreeable  thing;  but  to  have  Mary  ask 
beforehand  for  such  advice  and  instruction 
as  she  required  for  her  guidance,  would  not 
have  been  disagreeable  at  all.  It  would 
rather  have  been  a  source  of  gratification 
to  her  mother. 

The  agreement,  moreover,  which  Mary 
made  did  not  at  all  require  that  she  should 
do  the  work  entirely  alone,  —  without  any 
help  from  her  mother,  —  but  only  that  she 
should  not  ask  of  her  mother  anything  that 
would  give  her  pain,  or  tend  to  impose  upon 
her  any  of  the  burden  or  care. 

Mary  thought,  however,  that  she  must  not 
ask  her  mother's  advice  or  consult  her  at  all. 
But  she  concluded  to  think  well  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  to  form  a  good  plan  before  she 
commenced  her  operations. 

"  I  might  ask  Uncle  Edward  about  it,  I 


22  MARY   GAl'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 

suppose,"  she  said  to  herself,  "and  1  will, 
the  very  next  time  I  see  him." 

Mr.  Edward  —  her  uncle  as  she  called 
him  —  was  not  really  her  uncle.  He  was 
her  cousin  John's  uncle ;  but  Mary  and 
Luly,  following  John's  example,  almost  al- 
ways called  him  Uncle  Edward. 

Mary  had  an  opportunity  to  ask  Mr.  Ed- 
ward sooner  than  she  expected,  for  that 
evening  just  about  sunset  it  began  to  snow, 
and  the  next  morning  when  Mary  and  Luly 
looked  out  at  the  window  they  found  the 
ground  covered  everywhere  nearly  a  foot 
deep,  which,  as  the  ground  had  previously 
been  frozen  quite  hard,  made  it  excellent 
sleighing ;  and  the  consequence  was  that 
soon  after  breakfast  Mr.  Edward  came,  as 
he  often  did  on  similar  occasions,  to  give 
Mary  and  Luly  a  sleigh -ride. 

They  heard  the  jingling  of  the  sleigh- 
bells  coming  up  to  the  door  very  soon  after 
breakfast.  They  ran  to  one  of  the  front 
windows,  one  that  opened  upon  a  piazza 
near  one  end  of  the  house,  where  the  sun 
shone  in  very  pleasantly  in  the  morning. 
The  sleigh  was  there  with  two  horses. 
There  were  two  seats  in  the  sleigh.  The 


THE  SLEIGH-RIDE.  23 

forward  seat  was  higher  than  the  back  one, 
for  convenience  in  driving.  John  was  on 
the  front  seat,  and  Mr.  Edward  on  the 
back  seat,  —  both  well  enveloped  in  buffa- 
loes. 

"  Come,  children,"  said  John,  "  come  and 
take  a  sleigh-ride.  I  'm  going  to  drive." 

"  Well,"  said  Mary,  "  we  will  come.  Only 
I  don't  think  you  need  call  us  children.  We 
are  no  more  children  than  you  are." 

"  That 's  a  fact,"  said  John  ;  "  but  never 
mind  that.  Go  and  put  your  things  on,  and 
come  quick  and  take  a  ride.  Never  mind 
about  warming  your  feet,  for  Uncle  Ed- 
ward has  got  a  hot  plank  in  the  sleigh  for 
you  to  put  your  feet  upon.  Come  quick, 
before  the  plank  gets  cold." 

Mary  and  Luly  w^ent  in  immediately  to 
report  the  invitation  which  they  had  re- 
ceived to  their  mother,  and  to  get  ready. 
In  a  short  time  they  came  back  both  well 
muffled  up  in  coats  and  furs. 

Luly  wished  to  sit  on  the  front  seat  with 
John,  where  she  could  be  near  the  horses, 
and  see  John  drive,  notwithstanding  John's 
telling  her  that  by  so  doing  she  would  lose 
all  the  benefit  of  the  hot  plank. 


24  MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IX   WINTER. 

So  Luly  took  the  forward  seat  by  the  side 
of  John,  while  Mary  stepped  in  upon  the 
hot  plank, —  Edward  making  an  opening 
among  the  buffaloes  for  her.  The  hot  plank 
was  well  enveloped  in  a  horse-blanket,  so 
that  she  did  not  feel  the  heat  of  it  at 
first. 

Mary's  cousin,  John,  was  a  very  good 
driver,  and  as  soon  as  all  were  ready  he  set 
the  horses  off  on  a  good  round  trot.  Be- 
fore they  had  gone  far,  Mary  began  to  tell 
Mr.  Edward  of  the  arrangement  which  her 
mother  had  made  with  her  for  teaching 
Luly  to  darn,  and  said  that  she  was  to  do 
it  without  giving  her  mother  any  trouble 
about  it  at  all. 

Luly  hearing  that  her  sister  was  talking 
about  her,  turned  her  head  a  little  to  listen. 
John  listened  too. 

u  Mother  thinks,"  said  Mary,  "  that  Luly 
will  begin  well  enough,  but  that  she  will 
get  tired  pretty  soon,  and  won't  persevere; 
and  then  the  difficulty  will  be  for  me  to 
know  what  to  do.  For  I  can't  go  to  mother 
about  it  at  all." 

«  No,"  said  Luly,  «  I  shall  not  get  tired,  I 
am  sure,  and  you  will  not  have  any  trouble, 


THE  SLEIGH-RIDE.  25 

I  want  to  learn  to  darn  very  much,  and  1 
am  sure  I  shall  persevere." 

"Yes,"  said -Edward,  "I  think  she  will 
persevere,  though  that  will  depend  a  great 
deal  upon  how  you  manage." 

"  And  how  must  I  manage  ?  "  asked 
Mary. 

"  That  is  rather  hard  to  say,"  answered 
Edward.  "  It  is  difficult  to  describe  any 
right  way.  It  is  much  easier  to  tell  of 
wrong  ones.  I  can  tell  you  how  you  must 
not  manage.  You  must  not  do  as  Ninny 
did." 

"  Ninny  ! "  repeated  Mary.  "  Who  is  she  ?  " 
"  Did  not  you  ever  hear  of  Ninny?  "  asked 
Edward. 

"  No,"  said  Mary. 

"  Her  real  name  was  Nina,"  said  Edward  ; 
"  but  she  was  such  a  silly  child  that  they 
always  called  her  Ninny.  I  am  sure  you 
must  have  heard  of  her  doings  some- 
times." 

"  I  rather  think,"  said  John,  "  she  must 
be  a  cousin  or  some  relative  of  Bill  Booby, 
that  Ebenezer  tells  me  so  much  about." 

Ebenezer  was  a  farmer's  son  whom  John 
used  to  go  and  see,  and  who  often  enter- 


26     MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

tained  him  with  accounts  of  the  blunders 
and  mismanagement  of  one  Bill^  Booby. 

"  And  how  did  Ninny  manage  ?  "  asked 
Mary. 

"  Her  mother  proposed  to  her,"  said  John, 
"  to  teach  something  or  other,  I  have  forgot- 
ten what,  to  her  little  sister  Jane,  and  if  she 
succeeded  in  doing  it  she  was  to  receive  a 
certain  little  shawl-pin  with  a  yellow  stone 
in  it,  which  her  mother  had,  as  a  reward.  But 
when  she  commenced  her  teaching  she  gave 
her  mother  unceasing  trouble  by  continu- 
ally getting  into  difficulty  with  little  Jane. 
She  would  call  her  suddenly  away  from 
some  play  that  she  was  very  much  inter- 
ested in,  without  giving  her  any  warning 
or  time  to  prepare.  One  time,  just  as  Jane 
had  taken  out  her  blocks  and  spread  them 
upon  the  carpet,  and  was  beginning  to 
build  a  tower,  Ninny  all  at  once  conceived 
the  idea  of  giving  her  a  lesson.  So  she 
called  out  suddenly,  — 

" '  Now,  Jane,  put  your  blocks  right  away 
again,  and  come  to  me  and  take  a  lesson. 
I  am  going  to  give  you  a  lesson.' 

"  '  No,'  said  Jane,  and  she  went  on  build- 
ing her  tower. 


THE  SLEIGH-RIDE.  27 

"'Jane!'  said  Ninny,  speaking  in  a  very 
stern  voice,  '  come  to  me  this  instant.' 

"  Jane  did  not  move,  but  sat  still,  hold- 
ing one  of  the  blocks  in  her  hand  and  look- 
ing down,  and  at  the  same  time  begin- 
ning to  sing  in  a  low  and  scarcely  audible 
tone. 

"  '  Jane,'  said  Ninny,  '  are  you  not  going 
to  mind  me?  Mother  said  that  I  was  to 
teach  you,  and  so  you  must  come  when- 
ever I  call  you.  If  you  don't  come  imme- 
diately, I  shall  go  and  tell  mother.' 

"  But  Jane  did  not  come,  and  so  Ninny 
went  and  complained  to  her  mother.  Her 
mother  was,  of  course,  much  perplexed  to 
know  what  to  do.  She  had  not  given  Jane 
any  direction  to  come  immediately  when- 
ever Nina  was  ready  to  give  a  lesson,  and 
so  it  would  be  wrong  to  punish  her,  or  even 
to  find  fault  with  her  much  for  not  coming. 
But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  since  she  had 
commissioned  Nina  to  teach  her,  it  did  not 
seem  quite  right  not  to  do  something  to 
remedy  the  difficulty  when  she  refused  to 
go  and  be  taught.  But  what  to  do  was  the 
difficulty.  Her  mother  was  greatly  per- 
plexed and  troubled,  and  very  much  inter- 


28  MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IN  WINTER. 

rupted  in  her  work  by  having  such  a  ques- 
tion to  decide." 

"And  what  did  she  decide  ?  "  asked  Mary 

"  Why,  she  told  Jane  that  she  thought  she 
had  better  go  and  take  her  lesson.  Jane 
said  she  would,  as  soon  as  she  had  finished 
her  tower.  So  her  mother  gave  her  leave 
to  finish  her  tower. 

"  This  she  did.  She  built  her  tower,  — 
though  she  built  it  very  slowly  in  order  to 
take  up  as  much  time  as  possible.  When 
she  had  done  it,  she  put  her  blocks  away 
and  went  to  take  her  lesson.  But  Ninny 
was  out  of  humor  because  Jane  had  been 
allowed  to  finish  her  tower,  and  Jane  was 
out  of  humor  because  she  had  been  com- 
pelled to  go  so  soon ;  so  the  lesson  did  no 
good.  Jane  did  not  learn  anything  by  it  at 
all." 

On  hearing  this  story,  Mary  resolved  that 
she  would  be  more  careful  when  she  wished 
to  give  Luly  a  lesson ;  not  to  call  her  away 
too  suddenly  from  any  play  or  other  occu- 
pation in  which  she  was  interested,  but 
would  always  choose  times  when  she  was 
not  particularly  engaged  ;  or  if,  in  any  case, 
she  was  obliged  to  call  her  away  from  her 


THE  SLEIGH-RIDK.  29 

play,  she  would  not  do  it  too  abruptly,  but 
would  give  her  some  little  notice,  and  some 
time  to  finish  what  she  was  actually  for  the 
moment  doing. 

It  is  very  probable  that  Mary  and  her 
Uncle  Edward  would  have  had  some  fur- 
ther conversation  on  this  subject,  were  it 
not  for  a  circumstance  which  occurred  at 
this  time,  and  which  turned  the  thoughts  of 
the  whole  company  into  another  channel. 
The  circumstance  was  their  coming  in  sight 
of  another  party  of  sleigh -riders,  going  along 
the  road  at  a  short  distance  before  them. 
John  whipped  up  his  horses  and  soon  over- 
took the  other  sleigh  ;  and  as  the  road  at 
this  place  was  very  wide,  they  rode  along  for 
some  time  together,  side  by  side,  the  chil- 
dren in  the  two  sleighs  talking  and  laugh- 
ing together  very  merrily. 

The  two  sleighs  kept  company  with 
each  other  after  this  during  the  whole  ride, 
though  they  were  not  all  the  time  side  by 
side.  At  length,  after  about  an  hour,  they 
arrived  at  home  again,  and  Mr.  Edward  left 
Mary  and  Luly  upon  the  piazza  where  he 
had  taken  them,  and  he  and  John  drove 
away. 


MARY   GAY'S   WOIJK   IN    WINTER. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

BAKING-DAY. 

BY  the  side  of  the  house  where  Mary 
Gay  lived  was  a  sort  of  lane  which  led 
past  the  barns  and  sheds,  and  thence  along 
just  outside  the  garden-fence  toward  the 
pasture  and  the  wood-lot.  The  wood-lot, 
so  called,  was  a  forest  of  trees  which  occu- 
pied one  part  of  the  pasture.  Every  year 
in  the  fall  a  number  of  the  trees  were  felled, 
and  cut  up  into  suitable  lengths  to  be 
hauled  home  on  sleds  ;  and  then  in  the 
winter,  as  soon  as  the  ground  was  covered 
with  snow,  Mrs.  Gay's  man  —whose  name 
was  Jotham  Jones  —  used  to  go  with  the 
oxen  and  haul  the  wood  to  the  house.  Here 
he  would  pile  it  up  in  a  long  pile,  adding 
to  the  pile  every  day  as  much  as  he  could 
haul  in  three  or  four  loads.  Then,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  winter,  when  the  snow 
became  too  deep  to  haul  any  more,  he 
would  saw  and  split  the  wood,  and  pile  il 


BAKING-DAY.  31 

in  the  sheds,  where  it  would  remain  ready 
to  be  used  for  the  fires  in  the  house  the 
next  winter. 

Thus  the  fuel  for  the  house  was  obtained 
every  year  from  the  forest  in  the  pasture, 
and  that  was  the  reason  why  that  portion 
of  the  pasture  was  called  the  wood-lot. 

The  lane  leading  to  the  pasture  and  the 
wood-lot  was  a  very  pretty  place  in  sum- 
mer. It  had  the  garden  on  one  side,  and 
an  orchard  on  the  other.  The  garden-fence 
was  close  and  high,  and  very  difficult  to 
get  over ;  but  there  was  a  gate,  or  rather 
a  door,  in  it,  at  one  place,  where  the  chil- 
dren could  go  through,  when  they  wished 
to  go  out  of  the  garden  into  the  lane,  in 
order  to  go  to  the  pasture,  or  into  the  woods 
of  the  wood-lot,  for  the  purpose  of  gather- 
ing flowers  in  the  spring,  or  nuts  and  acorns 
in  the  fall. 

The  space  between  the  roadway  in  the 
lane  and  the  garden-fence  was  filled  with 
wild  raspberry  and  blackberry  bushes,  and 
the  children  used  often  to  go  there  in  sum- 
mer to  gather  berries. 

In  winter  too  the  road  along  the  lane  was 
very  pleasant,  for  it  was  sheltered  from  the 
wind  by  the  high  garden-fence. 


32  MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

Mary's  cousin,  John,  with  very  commend- 
able foresight,  had  made  the  sled  for  her 
during  the  fall,  in  order  that  it  might  be 
ready,  and  the  paint  all  dry,  when  the  first 
snow  should  come.  It  so  happened  that 
he  came  to  bring  it  home  on  the  morning 
of  the  day  after  the  sleigh-ride  described  in 
the  last  chapter.  He  came  to  the  piazza- 
door  with  the  sled,  having  tied  it  to  the  end 
of  his  own  sled,  so  as  thus  to  draw  them 
both  along  together.  Benny  came  with  his 
sled,  too. 

The  boys  left  the  three  sleds  at  the  door, 
and  went  into  the  house.  They  asked  Mrs. 
Gay  where  Mary  was. 

"  She  and  Luly  are  in  the  kitchen,"  said 
Mrs.  Gay.  "  It  is  baking-day." 

"  Good !  Benny,"  said  John,  in  a  tone 
of  great  satisfaction,  —  "we  will  have  one 
of  Luly's  little  pies." 

So  the  boys  went  on  through  the  back 
parlor  where  Mrs.  Gay  was  sitting,  out 
through  a  wide  hall,  and  thence  into  the 
kitchen.  Here  they  found  Mary  and  Luly 
both  busy  at  work,  in  company  with 
Sophronia,  Mrs.  Gay's  girl,  making  pies. 
Sophronia  and  Mary  were  at  work  at  a 


BAKIXG-DAY.  33 

large  table  near  a  window,  and  Luly  at  a 
small  one  with  short  legs,  which  made  it 
just  high  enough  for  her  to  work  at  when 
standing  on  the  floor. 

Mary  herself  was  standing  on  a  little 
platform  or  step  which  John  had  made  for 
her,  and  which  raised  her  from  the  floor 
enough  to  bring  her  to  the  right  height  to 
work  at  the  same  table  with  Sophronia, 
who  was  much  taller  than  she  was. 

Mary  and  Luly  had  both  learned  to  make 
pies  very  well.  The  way  in  which  they 
had  learned  was  by  imitating  Sophronia. 
Mary,  when  she  first  began  to  learn,  would 
take  her  stand  upon  her  little  platform  at 
the  end  of  Sophronia's  table,  where  she  was 
provided  with  the  same  materials  and  im- 
plements that  Sophronia  herself  was  to  use, 
only  on  a  much  smaller  scale ;  and  then, 
watching  attentively  all  of  Sophronia's 
movements  and  operations,  she  would  do 
the  same  things  herself,  imitating  all  that 
Sophronia  did,  step  by  step  ;  and  thus  while 
Sophronia  made  large  pies,  Mary  would 
make  little  ones. 

Of  course  she  did  not  attempt  to  keep 
up  with  Sophronia  in  the  work,  so  as  to 


34    MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

finish  her  small  pie  as  soon  as  Sophronia 
finished  the  great  one.  She  went  much 
more  slowly,  so  that  while  Sophronia  was 
making  half  a  dozen  pies,  she  would  only 
make  two  or  three. 

For  some  time  after  this  system  was 
commenced,  Luly  watched  the  proceedings 
every  baking-day  with  great  interest,  until 
at  last  she  began  to  feel  a  desire  to  try  to 
make  pies  too. 

"  Why,  Luly,"  said  Mary,  "  you  are  not 
big  enough." 

"  But  I  don't  mean  to  make  such  big 
pies  as  you  and  Sophronia  do.  I  only 
want  to  make  very  little  pies." 

"  But  you  are  not  tall  enough  to  stand 
at  the  table  and  work  upon  it  as  I  do." 

"  I  could  stand  upon  your  platform,"  said 
Luly. 

"  You  would  not  be  high  enough  then," 
said  Mary. 

"  I  could  stand  up  in  a  chair,"  said 
Luly. 

"  Then  you  would  be  too  high,"  said 
Mary. 

Luly  paused  a  moment,  —  apparently 
somewhat  perplexed,  —  when  at  length,  as 


BAKING-DAY.  35 

if  a  new  idea  had  suddenly  come  into  her 
mind,  she  said,  "  I  know  what  I  can  do." 
And  so  saying,  she  immediately  ran  off 
into  the  other  room,  shutting  the  door  after 
her. 

In  a  few  minutes  Mary  heard  her  at  the 
door  again,  calling  out  "  Open  the  door." 
Mary  went  to  respond  to  the  call,  and  on 
opening  the  door  she  found  Luly  there 
bringing  her  table  with  her.  It  was  a  small 
square  table,  very  light,  and  just  of  the  right 
height  for  her.  It  was  made  of  pine,  but  it 
was  painted  of  a  dark  color  in  imitation  of 
rosewood.  It  was  in  fact  quite  a  pretty 
table. 

"  I  have  brought  my  table,"  said  Luly, 
"  and  I  can  work  at  my  table  very  well,  if 
you  will  only  give  me  the  things,  and  a 
very  little  plate." 

"  So  Sophronia  gave  her  the  things  that 
were  necessary,  and  also  a  very  small  plate ; 
and  Luly  made  a  pie,  though  it  must  be 
confessed  that  in  doing  it  she  received  a 
good  deal  of  assistance  from  Mary,  who, 
instead  of  finding  fault  with  her  and  calling 
her  troublesome,  aided  and  encouraged  her 
as  much  as  she  could,  as  she  knew  that  hsr 


36  MARY  GAY'Y  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

mother  wished  Luly  to  be  encouraged  to 
learn  as  many  useful  things  as  possible. 

Luly's  pie,  when  finished,  was  put  into 
the  oven  with  the  rest;  and  when  it  was 
baked,  Luly  carried  it  with  great  pride  and 
pleasure  to  show  to  her  mother. 

After  this,  John  made  Luly  a  roller  to  roll 
out  the  paste  for  her  pies ;  and  almost  every 
baking-day  she  used  to  go -into  the  kitchen 
with  her  little  table,  and  work  there  very 
diligently,  while  Sophronia  and  Mary  were 
employed  at  the  great  table,  in  making 
little  pies  and  turnovers,  and  other  such 
things,  all  of  which  were  put  in  the  oven 
by  Sophronia  on  a  sheet  of  tin  by  them- 
selves, to  be  baked  with  the  great  pies. 

She  was  employed  in  this  way  on  the 
day  when  John  and  Benny  came  to  bring 
home  Mary's  sled.  She  had  made  two  little 
pies,  and  was  just  finishing  a  turnover  when 
John  and  Benny  came  in. 

John  went  at  once  to  Mary's  table,  and 
Benny  to  Luly's. 

"  Mary,"  said  John,  "  I  have  brought 
home  your  sled,  and  we  want  you  and 
Luly  to  go  with  us  a-coasting.  Jotham  is 
yoking  up  the  oxen,  and  we  can  go  along 
with  him." 


BAKING-DAY.  37 

"  Well,"  said  Mary,  "  as  soon  as  we  have 
got  the  pies  into  the  oven." 

"  Ah,  Luly,"  said  Benny,  "  what  nice 
little  pies !  You  will  give  me  one  of  them 
when  they  are  baked  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Luly,  «  I  can't  do  that.  I  've 
only  made  three  to-day,  and  I  want  them 
all  for  myself." 

"  Oh,  Luly  !  "  said  Benny,  "  you  can't 
eat  three  pies  all  yourself.  It  would  make 
you  sick." 

"  It  is  not  three  pies,"  said  Luly.  "  There 
are  only  two  pies  and  a  turnover," 

"  That  is  just  the  same  thing,"  said 
Benny. 

"  No,"  said  Luly,  "  a  pie  and  a  turnover 
are  very  different  things." 

"  I  mean,"  rejoined  Benny,  "  they  are  just 
the  same  about  making  you  sick." 

"  But  I  am  not  going  to  eat  them  all  in 
one  day,"  said  Luly.  "  I  want  one  for  to- 
day, one;  for  to-morrow,  and  one  for  day 
after  to-morrow." 

"  If  you  will  give  me  the  turnover,"  said 
Benny,  "  I  will  draw  you  on  my  sled  all 
the  way  to  the  coast." 

The  coast  was  a  long  descent  in  the  cart- 


38  MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

road  leading  through  the  open  part  of  the 
pasture  to  the  wood-lot,  where  the  children 
used  to  go  to  slide.  The  wood-sled  in 
going  up  and  down  opened  the  road  for 
them  after  every  storm,  and  their  sleds  soon 
wore  it  smooth  ;  and  as  the  wood-sled  only 
went  back  and  forth  two  or  three  times  in 
the  day,  the  children  had  the  road  most  of 
the  time  all  to  themselves. 

Luly  was  very  much  tempted  by  Benny's 
offer  to  draw  her  all  the  way  to  the  coast. 
After  some  hesitation  she  concluded  to  ac- 
cept it,  and  she  finally  promised  to  give  him 
the  turnover  on  the  condition  proposed. 

In  a  few  minutes  after  this  the  pies  were 
put  in  the  oven,  and  then,  Mary  and  Luly 
having  first  put  on  their  winter  outside 
clothing,  they  all  went  out  by  the  piazza- 
door  to  get  the  sleds,  and  thence  round  into 
the  barn-yard,  where  they  found  Jotham 
just  getting  ready  with  his  wood-sled  and 
his  oxen. 


JOTHAM  JONES.  89 


CHAPTER  V. 

JOTHAM    JONES. 

THE  sled  which  John  had  made  for  Mary 
was  what  may  be  called  a  girl's  sled,  being 
constructed  with  a  sort  of  back-piece,  fast- 
ened behind,  for  the  girl  sitting  upon  it  to 
lean  against  a  little  for  a  support,  and  also 
to  keep  her  from  slipping  off  behind  in  being 
drawn  up-hill.  For  boys,  such  a  protection 
in  going  up-hill  is  unnecessary,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  of  no  consequence  if  they  do  slip 
off.  They  can  easily  scramble  up  and  jump 
on  again,  and  such  an  accident  only  makes 
more  fun.  But  girls  are  encumbered  by 
their  dress,  and  cannot  well  perform  sudden 
evolutions  of  that  kind,  and  consequently  a 
little  support  behind  is  a  great  convenience 
to  them. 

As  soon  as  the  children  reached  the  yard 
where  Jotham  was  preparing  the  ox-sled. 
John  immediately  began  to  attach  the  hand- 
sleds  to  the  ox-sled  by  fastening  the  cords 


40  MARY   GAY'S   WORK   1\  WINTER. 

to  the  stakes  and  to  the  cross-bar  at  the 
end.  Jotham  seemed  to  take  this  as  a 
matter  of  course,  as  indeed  well  he  might, 
inasmuch  as  the  boys  had  always  been 
accustomed  to  ride  behind  his  sled  in  this 
way  in  previous  years.  Jotham  was  a  very 
taciturn  young  man,  that  is  to  say,  he  talked 
very  little,  and  seemed  to  have  no  particular 
fancy  for  children.  He,  however,  had  no 
objection  to  children  going  with  him,  pro- 
vided they  behaved  well,  and  did  not  hinder 
his  work.  If  they  troubled  him  at  all  in 
any  way,  he  always  sent  them  off  in  a  very 
peremptory  manner. 

John  fastened  the  cord  of  Mary's  sled  to 
the  middle  of  the  cross-bar  at  the  end  of 
the  ox-sled,  and  that  of  his  own  sled  to  one 
of  the  stakes,  leaving  the  other  stake  for 
Benny.  But  Benny  said  he  was  going  to 
hold  the  cord  of  his  sled  in  his  hand,  and 
sit  on  the  end  of  the  cross-bar. 

At  length  the  arrangements  were  all  made. 
John's  and  Mary's  sleds  were  fastened  to 
the  ox-sled,  and  John  had  taken  his  seat  on 
his  sled,  and  Mary  on  hers.  Lilly  was  also 
seated  on  Benny's  sled,  while  Benny,  seated 
on  the  cross-bar  of  the  ox-sled,  at  one  side. 


JOTHAM  JONES.  41 

held  the  cord  in  his  hand.  Thus,  as  they 
thought,  they  were  all  ready  for  a  start. 

"  John,"  said  Jotham,  "  you  have  forgot- 
ten your  board." 

The  board  which  Jotham  referred  to  was 
one  which  he  had  prepared  to  fit  in  between 
the  two  back  cross-bars  of  the  sled,  to  close 
the  space  there,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
children,  when  riding  on  the  sled,  from 
slipping  through.  For,  as  probably  most  of 
my  readers  are  aware,  an  ox-sled,  such  as 
is  used  in  the  country  for  hauling  wood, 
has  commonly  no  flooring  of  boards,  but 
only  cross-bars  extending  across  from  one 
runner  to  another,  about  a  foot  or  fifteen 
inches  apart.  The  wood  with  which  the 
sled  is  to  be  loaded,  consisting  of  sticks 
usually  four  feet  long,  rests  very  well  on 
these  bars,  while  yet  children  attempting 
to  ride  on  the  sled  would  be  in  danger  of 
falling  through. 

So  Jotham  had  made  a  board  just  wide 
enough  and  long  enough  to  fit  in  between 
the  two  cross-bars  nearest  the  end  of  the 
sled,  so  as  to  close  up  the  last  space,  and 
make  a  sort  of  floor  there  wide  enough  for 
the  children  to  stand  upon  when  they  were 
riding  on  the  sled. 


42  MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IX  WINTER. 

This  board  was  kept  in  a  certain  place 
in  the  barn,  and  John  was  required  to  put 
it  on  whenever  he  and  Benny  went  with 
the  sled.  When  only  Mary  and  Luly  went, 
Jotham  had  the  politeness  to  put  the  board 
on  for  them. 

Jotham  now  called  upon  John  to  put  on 
the  board. 

"  Oh,  Jotham,"  replied  John,  "  we  don't 
need  any  board.  We  are  all  riding  on 
our  sleds  except  Benny,  and  he  is  sitting 
down." 

"  Put  on  the  board,"  said  Jotham,  per- 
emptorily. 

So  John  got  off  from  his  sled  and  went 
into  the  barn  to  get  the  board.  Before  he 
got  back,  Jotham  had  started.  John  ran, 
and  hastily  fitting  the  board  irito  its  place, 
scrambled  back  upon  bis  sled  again  ;  and 
then  the  whole  party  were  drawn  slowly  on 
by  the  oxen  along  the  lane.  Jotham  was 
seated  in  the  forward  part  of  the  sled,  upon 
an  iron  chain  which  he  had  passed  across 
there  from  one  stake  to  another. 

Thus  the  whole  party  were  nicely  accom- 
modated. 

You  must  remember  that  Benny  did  not 


JOTHAM  JONES.  43 

fasten  the  string  of  his  sled  to  the  stake, 
but  sat  upon  the  cross-bar  and  held  the 
string  in  his  hand,  and  by  this  means  Luly 
was  drawn  along. 

After  going  on  in  this  way  for  some  time, 
John  jumped  off  from  his  sled,  and  running 
forward,  climbed  up  upon  the  ox-sled,  by 
means  of  one  of  the  stakes,  and  stood  upon 
the  little  flooring  made  by  the  board  and 
the  two  cross-bars  at  each  side  of  it.  Pres- 
ently he  began  to  walk  along  toward  the 
front  of  the  sled,  where  Jotham  was  sitting 
upon  the  chain.  In  passing  forward  in  this 
way  he  stepped  from  one  cross-bar  to  an- 
other, steadying  himself  all  the  way  by  the 
stakes  at  the  sides. 

"  Jotham,"  said  he,  "  what  is  it  that  you 
always  make  us  put  that  board  on  the  sled 
for,  when  we  go  out  into  the  woods  with 
you?" 

"  Because,"  replied  Jotham,  "  I  don't  want 
to  have  any  boys  or  girls  with  broken  legs 
to  haul  home  on  the  top  of  my  load.  —  Ha' 
Bright !  Ha'  Golden  ! " 

These  last  words,  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  say,  were  addressed  to  the  oxen. 

"  We  don't  need  any  board  to  keep  us 
from  falling  through,"  said  John. 


44  MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

"  Ha'  Bright !  "  said  Jotham. 

"  I  can  go  all  over  this  sled,"  continued 
John,  "  without  falling  through." 

Jotham  did  not  answer. 

"  I  could  do  it,"  said  John,  "  if  the  bars 
were  twice  as  far  apart." 

«  Gee  a  little,  Bright !  "  said  Jotham. 

"  Besides,"  said  John,  "  if  you  have  a 
board  anywhere,  you  should  have  one  be- 
tween every  pair  of  cross-bars,  for  we  might 
fall  through  when  we  come  forward  to 
speak  to  you." 

"  That  's  none  of  my  business,"  said 
Jotham.  "  If  I  floor  over  your  part  of  the 
sled,  and  make  it  safe,  and  you  choose  to 
leave  your  own  place  and  come  forward  to 
mine,  and  so  fall  through  and  break  your 
legs,  it  's  none  of  my  business.  I  should 
not  care  anything  about  it." 

"  You  would  have  to  haul  us  home,"  said 
John. 

"  Yes,"  said  Jotham.  "  I  should  haul  you 
home,  but  I  should  not  care.  It  is  no  great 
thing  for  a  boy  to  break  his  leg." 

"  Oh,  Jotham  !  "  exclaimed  John. 

"  Getting  it  set  hurts  him  some,"  said 
Jotham  ;  "  but  after  that,  it  is  only  lying  on 


JOTHAM  JONES.  45 

his  back  for  a  month  or  so,  and  his  leg  is 
as  good  as  ever.  In  the  mean  time  he  has 
been  kept  out  of  a  month's  mischief,  which 
is  so  much  clear  gain.  Ha'  Bright!  Ha' 
Golden ! " 

Jotham  said  this  with  the  tone  and  air  of 
one  finishing  the  conversation ;  so  John  went 
back  to  the  other  end  of  the  sled.  What 
Jotham  had  said,  however,  in  respect  to  the 
insignificance  of  the  injury  caused  by  a 
broken  leg,  did  not  seem  to  have  had  any 
effect  in  making  him  disposed  to  underrate 
the  danger,  for  in  going  back  he  appeared 
to  take  great  care  to  keep  a  good  footing, 
and  always  held  on  well  to  one  stake  until 
he  had  secured  a  firm  hold  upon  another. 

After  a  short  time  the  oxen  came  to  the 
end  of  the  lane,  where  there  were  a  pair  of 
bars,  now  open,  which  led  to  the  pasture. 
They  passed  through  these  bars,  and  after 
going  on  a  short  distance  beyond,  they  came 
to  the  commencement  of  the  descent  which 
formed  what  they  called  the  coast. 

In  a  little  opening  among  some  groves 
of  trees  which  grew  near  the  top  of  the 
descent  there  stood  an  old  and  somewhat 
rude-looking  building,  made  of  logs,  and 


46        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  ix  WINTER. 

open  entirely  toward  the  south.  This  build- 
ing was  called  the  old  sugar-house.  It  was 
built  many  years  before  to  contain  the  boil- 
ers and  other  apparatus  used  fof  making 
maple  sugar,  but  it  had  been  abandoned, 
and  the  boilers  had  been  taken  away,  in 
order  to  be  placed  in  a  new  and  better 
sugar-house,  which  had  been  built  farther 
in  the  woods,  at  a  place  which  was  more 
convenient  for  gathering  the  sap  from  the 
maple-trees. 

This  building  was  very  useful  to  the  chil- 
dren on  cold  and  windy  days,  especially  if 
the  sun  was  shining ;  for,  as  it  stood  very 
near  the  top  of  their  hill,  they  used  to  go 
in  there  sometimes  to  rest  a  few  minutes 
and  enjoy  the  warmth  of  the  sun  and 
the  shelter  from  the  wind  which  the  hut 
afforded,  before  they  commenced  a  new 
slide: 

It  was  not  windy  at  all,  however,  on  this 
occasion,  nor  was  it  very  cold,  and  so  the 
children  had  no  occasion  to  stop  at  the 
sugar-house.  Besides,  as  the  road  was  not 
yet  broken,  they  concluded  to  go  right  on 
down  the  hill,  drawn  by  the  great  sled,  in 
order  that  their  small  sleds  might  help  the 


JCTHAM  JONES.  47 

great  one  as  much  as  possible  to  make  a 
good  track  through  the  snow. 

So  they  went  on  down  the  hill ;  and  when 
they  reached  the  bottom  of  it,  they  cast  off 
the  cords  from  the  big  sled,  and  leaving 
Jotham  to  go  on  after  his  load  of  wood, 
they  turned  and  began  to  walk  up  the  hill 
again.  On  their  way  up,  a  serious  question 
arose  between  Benny  and  Luly  about  the 
turnover.  It  began  by  Benny's  saying  to 
Luly  that  he  wondered  whether  his  turn- 
over was  baked  yet. 

"  It  is  not  your  turnover,"  said  Luly.  "  It 
is  mine." 

"  No,"  said  Benny ;  "  you  promised  it  to 
me." 

"  No,"  retorted  Luly  ;  "  I  promised  it  to 
you  if  you  would  haul  me  to  the  pasture. 
But  you  did  not  haul  me.  It  was  the  great 
sled  that  hauled  me.  You  only  held  the 
string.  You  did  not  haul  me  yourself  at 
all." 

But  Benny  insisted  that  he  did  really 
haul  her,  and  was  entitled  to  the  turnover. 

"  You  see,  Luly,"  said  he, "  the  great  sled 
did  not  haul  you,  because  the  cord  was  not 
fastened  to  it  at  all.  How  could  the  great 


48  MAKY   GAY'S   WORK   IN   W-IXTER. 

sled  haul  you  when  the  cord  was  not  fast- 
ened to  it  ?  The  great  sled  hauled  me,  and 
I  held  the  cord  of  your  sied,  and  so  hauled 
you.  That  is  the  way  it  was." 

But  Luly  was  not  convinced,  and  so  the 
'two  children  appealed  to  John  and  Mary, 
who  were  walking  a  little  before  them.  But 
John  and  Mary,  after  hearing  the  question, 
fell  into  what  is  called  a  tie  in  coming  to  a 
decision,  that  is,  they  were  equally  divided, 
one  taking  one  side  and  the  other  the  other. 
Mary  thought  that  Benny  did  haul  Luly, 
and  that  he  ought  to  have  the  turnover; 
while  John  thought  that  he  did  not  haul 
her,  and  ought  not  to  have  it. 

A  tie  like  this  is  a  difficulty  that  is  very 
likely  to  happen  when  a  question  in  dis- 
pute is  referred  to  an  even  number  of  per- 
sons, such  as  two  or  four.  Hence,  among 
men,  where  questions  in  dispute  are  refer- 
red to  other  persons  for  decision,  the  parties 
always  take  care  to  have  an  odd  number 
of  referees,  —  such  as  one,  or  three,  or  five, 
—  and  then  there  can  never  be  a  tie. 

By  this  time  the  whole  party  had  reached 
the  top  of  the  hill  and  were  ready  for  an- 
other slide.  After  taking  two  or  three  more 


JOTHAM   JONES.  49 

turns  they  at  length,  when  they  came  to 
the  bottom  of  the  hill,  saw  Jotham  coining 
out  of  the  woods  with  his  sled  loaded.  So 
they  waited  for  him,  in  order  to  attach  their 
sleds  behind  the  ox-sled  and  get  drawn  up 
the  hill.  On  the  way  up  it  occurred  to 
Benny  that  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to 
refer  the  unsettled  question  to  him,  and  so 
they  stated  the  case.  Jotham  turned  round 
and  walked  backward  long  enough  to  hear 
the  question  stated,  and  then  he  turned  to- 
ward his  oxen  again,  saying, — 

"  Oh,  you  must  settle  your  disputes  among 
yourselves,  and  not  come  bothering  me  with 
them.  Ha'  Bright !  Ha'  Golden  !  " 

The  oxen,  on  hearing  his  voice,  began  to 
step  a  little  quicker,  and  so  they  all  went 
on  up  the  hill. 


60  MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN    WINTER. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    CAMP-FIRE. 

WHEN  the  children  reached  the  top  of 
the  hill,  they  all  went  into  the  sugar-house  ; 
not  because  they  were  cold,  but  only  to  see 
the  place  again  and  vary  their  amusement 
by  resting  there  a  little  from  their  sliding 
and  playing. 

The  front  of  this  little  hut,  which  faced 
the  south,  was  entirely  open,  as  I  believe 
has  already  been  said.  In  the  back  part 
were  the  remains  of  an  old  chimney.  The 
chimney  itself,  that  is,  all  the  upper  portion 
of  the  masonry,  was  in  very  good  order ;  but 
the  lower  part,  where  the  fireplace  ought 
to  be,  was  all  broken  away.  The  truth 
is,  that  there  never  had  been  any  fireplace 
there,  but  only  two  great  boilers  to  boil  the 
sap  in.  These  boilers  had  been  connected 
with  the  chimney  by  means  of  sheet-iron 
flues;  and  when  these  were  removed,  the 
brick-work,  where  they  entered,  had  been 
broken  away  and  left  in  ruins. 


THE  CAMP-FIRE.  51 

There  were  two  seats  across  the  ends  of 
the  hut,  made  for  persons  to  sit  upon  when 
engaged  in  boiling  sap.  These  seats  still 
remained  in  their  places.  One  of  them,  of 
course,  as  the  hut  opened  toward  the  south, 
took  the  sun  in  the  morning,  and  the  other 
in  the  afternoon. 

The  children  all  went  into  the  hut  and 
took  seats  in  the  sunniest  corner. 

"  I  wish  we  had  a  fireplace  here,"  said 
Mary ;  "  for  then  we  might  go  and  get  some 
wood  and  build  a  fire.  There  is  almost  a 
fireplace." 

John  said  that  perhaps  he  could  make 
the  opening  of  the  chimney  into  a  fireplace, 
if  it  was  only  warm  weather,  and  if  he  had 
some  bricks  and  mortar. 

"  Next  summer  we  will  do  it,"  said  Mary. 
"  But  could  not  we  build  a  fire  here  now, 
on  the  ground  before  the  chimney  ?  Would 
not  the  smoke  go  up  through  that  hole  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  John,  «  not  all  of  it.  Enough 
of  it  would  come  out  to  make  the  sugar- 
house  so  smoky  that  we  could  not  stay  in 
it." 

On  a  careful  examination,  John  found 
that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  make  a 


52          MARY   GAY'S   WOHK  IN  WINTER. 

fireplace  there,  for  the  chimney  was  bnilt 
up  solid  for  about  two  feet  from  the  ground, 
or  rather  from  a  very  large  flat  stone  laid 
upon  the  ground  for  a  foundation.  It  only 
bogan  to  be  hollow  at  the  height  where  the 
flues  from  the  sugar-boilers  were  to  come 
in. 

"  But  we  can  have  a  fire  outside  the 
sugar-house,"  said  John,  "  as  they  do  when 
they  camp  out.  They  always  make  the 
fire  outside  when  they  make  a  camp." 

John  had  heard  of  persons  having  to 
"camp  out,"  as  they  call  it,  for  a  night 
or  two,  in  the  woods ;  in  which  case  they 
usually  make  a  large  fire  of  logs  of  wood, 
and  then  build  upon  one  side  of  it,  and 
very  near,  a  shelter  formed  of  boughs  and 
branches  of  trees,  to  keep  off  the  wind,  or 
to  protect  them  from  the  rain  or  snow  if 
there  should  be  a  storm  in  the  night. 

The  children  immediately  determined  to 
adopt  this  plan  for  the  sugar-house. 

"  We  will  take  another  slide  down  the 
hill,"  said  John,  "  and  when  we  come  up, 
we  will  bring  all  our  sleds  up  loaded  with 
wood,  and  so  have  a  good  fire." 

So  they  took  their  slide  down  the  hill, 


THE   CAMP-FIKK.  53 

and  when  they  reached  the  bottom  they 
turned  off  by  the  sled-road  into  the  woods, 
until  they  came  to  the  place  where  Jotham 
was  at  work.  He  had  come  back  from  the 
house,  and  was  now  loading  his  sled  again. 

The  children  began  to  look  about  for  dry 
sticks  and  other  light  wood,  such  as  they 
imagined  they  could  load  upon  their  smt.ll 
sleds  ;  but  for  a  time  they  were  very  unsuc- 
cessful, for  the  snow  covered  the  ground, 
and  all  the  dry  and  loose  sticks  were  hid- 
den from  view. 

At  last,  however,  they  found  some  large 
fallen  trees,  the  branches  of  which  were 
dead  and  dry,  and  were  moreover  so  far 
decayed  that  they  could  be  easily  broken 
off.  John  immediately  went  to  work  break- 
ing off  these  limbs  and  giving  them  to  the 
other  children,  who  at  once  proceeded  to 
drag  them  out  to  the  roadside  near  where 
they  had  left  the  small  sleds.  These  they 
had  placed  close  behind  the  large  sled,  in  a 
situation  convenient  to  be  attached  to  it  by 
the  cords  when  they  were  loaded,  so  that 
the  oxen  in  drawing  their  big  load  out  of 
the  woods  and  up  the  hill  might  draw  their 
supplies  of  fuel  too. 


54          MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

But  when  they  came  to  putting  the  wood 
which  they  had  gathered  upon  the  small 
sleds  and  securing  it  there,  they  encoun- 
tered great  difficulty.  The  limbs  which 
they  had  broken  off  from  the  dead  tree 
were  so  irregular  in  form,  and  some  of 
them  were  so  large  and  branching,  that  it 
was  impossible  to  pack  them  on  such  small 
sleds ;  and  even  if  they  had  been  able  to 
stow  them  compactly,  they  had  no  rope 
nor  any  other  means  of  binding  them  on. 

What  made  the  matter  worse  was,  that 
Jotham  had  by  this  time  got  his  load  al- 
most made  up,  and  the  children  were  afraid 
that  he  would  finish  it  and  set  off  before 
they  were  ready ;  so  they  hurried  as  much 
as  they  could,  and  tried  every  possible  way 
to  make  their  wood  stay  upon  their  sleds; 
but  at  last  they  found  that  Jotham  was 
ready  to  start,  while  they  were  yet  all  in 
confusion.  John  was  ready  to  give  up  in 
despair,  and,  dropping  a  monstrous  branch 
which  he  had  in  his  hands,  he  exclaimed, — 

«  Oh,  dear  me  !     We  can't  do  it." 

Just  at  this  moment  Jotham,  with  his 
goad-stick  in  his  hand,  came  round  behind 
the  sled,  as  if  to  see  what  was  going  on 


THE  CAMP-FIRE.  55 

there.  He  stood  a  moment  and  looked 
upon  the  heaps  of  sticks  and  branches  that 
were  lying  on  the  small  sleds,  and  on  the 
snow  around,  with  a  very  contemptuous 
expression  of  countenance,  and  then  speak- 
ing to  John, — 

"  What  are  you  trying  to  do  with  all  this 
rubbish  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  Kubbish  !  "  repeated  John.  "  It  is  our 
wood.  We  want  to  get  it  up  to  the  sugar- 
house  to  make  a  fire." 

There  was  pause  for  a  moment  after  this, 
and  then  Jotham,  handing  John  his  goacl- 
sti^.k,  said,  — 

"  Here,  take  this  goad -stick  and  stand 
out  of  the  way." 

When  John  had  taken  the  goad-stick  and 
had  fallen  back,  Jotham  began  at  once  to 
take  up  the  biggest  of  the  branches  and 
throw  them  up  upon  the  top  of  his  load. 
Being  large  and  strong,  he  could  do  this 
with  great  ease.  After  throwing  up  all  the 
largest  ones,  he  gathered  up  the  small  ones 
and  threw  them  up  too,  and  in  a  few  min- 
utes had  the  ground  entirely  cleared,  while 
all  the  rubbish,  as  he  called  it,  lay  piled  up 
high  upon  the  top  of  his  wood. 


56          MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

Then,  without  saying  a  word  to  John,  he 
took  the  goad-stick  out  of  his  hand  and 
went  round  to  the  oxen,  beginning  to  call 
out  at  the  same  time, — 

"Ha' Bright!     Ha'  Golden!" 

The  children  had  previously  attached  the 
cords  of  their  sleds  to  the  cross  -  bar  and 
stakes  of  the  big  sled ;  so  that  when  the 
oxen  began  to  move,  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  scramble  to  their  places  upon  the 
little  sleds  and  be  drawn  along  up  the  hill. 

It  is  true  that  there  were  but  three  sleds, 
while  there  were  four  persons  to  ride.  But 
John  had  the  politeness  to  take  Luly  on 
with  him,  and  to  hold  her  safely  before  him 
on  his  sled,  all  the  way  up. 

When  they  reached  the  top,  Jotham 
turned  aside  a  little  so  as  to  bring  his  load 
up  pretty  near  to  the  sugar -house,  and, 
stopping  the  oxen  there,  he  threw  off  the 
children's  wood  to  the  ground;  and  then, 
starting  his  oxen  again,  he  drove  on  toward 
the  house  with  his  load  of  wood  without 
saying  a  word. 

"  Thank  ye,"  said  Benny,  calling  out 
after  him  very  loud. 

"  It  does  not  do  any  good  to  thank  him," 
said  Mary. 


THE  CAMP-FIRE.  57 

«  Why  not  ?  "  asked  Benny. 

"  Because  he  don't  care  anything  about 
it.  When  he  does  anything  for  us,  he  does 
not  care  whether  we  thank  him  or  not." 

By  this  time  John  had  taken  a  match- 
box from  his  pocket,  and  was  now  gather- 
ing together  some  of  the  small,  dry  sticks 
in  order  to  kindle  a  fire. 

He  very  sbon  had  his  sticks  blazing,  and 
by  piling  on  more  and  more,  and  packing 
them  down  as  closely  as  possible,  there 
was  soon  a  very  good  fire.  Mary  and  the 
other  children  helped  to  put  on  the  wood, 
taking  good  care  not  to  go  so  near  the 
blaze  as  to  set  their  clothes  on  fire. 

After  the  fire  became  pretty  hot,  John 
proposed  that  they  should  all  go  into 
the  thickets  near  by,  and  break  off  some 
branches  from  the  hemlock  trees  and 
bushes,  and  pile  them  on  the  fire  to  make 
it  blaze  and  crackle.  This  they  did.  They 
all  went  wallowing  on  through  the  snow 
into  the  thicket,  and  presently  came  out 
loaded  with  hemlock  branches.  These 
they  laid  down  near  the  fire,  and  then 
went  into  the  thicket  again  for  another 
'oad  When  they  had  at  length  accumu- 


58          MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IN  WINTER. 

lated  a  sufficient  quantity,  John  began  to 
put  the  branches  upon  the  fire,  while  the 
other  children  looked  on  to  witness  the 
effect.  At  first  there  came  up  a  dense 
smoke,  which  rolled  upward  in  prodigious 
volumes,  high  into  the  air,  and  then  floated 
away  among  the  tops  of  the  Irees.  But 
very  soon  the  flame  began  to  burst  through 
with  a  roaring  and  crackling  «which  Luly 
would  haVe  considered  quite  terrifying  if 
she  had  not  believed  that  the  whole  op- 
eration was  completely  under  John's  con- 
trol.* 

The  children  continued  to  play  about 
their  fire  for  some  time,  and  then  con- 
cluded that  they  would  not  slide  any  more, 
but  that  the  next  time  that  Jotham  came 
up  with  his  sled  they  would  go  home. 

This  they  did ;  but  before  they  reached 
the  house  where  Mary  and  Luly  lived, 
John  and  Benny  turned  off  another  way. 
Benny  said  it  was  of  no  use  for  him  to  go 
into  the  house,  since  Luly  would  not  give 
him  his  turnover. 

The  end  of  the  turnover  story  was  some- 
what curious,  for  Benny  gave  up  all  claim 

*  See  frontispiece. 


THE  CAMP-FIRE.  59 

to  it,  and  yet  he  received  it  after  all.  It 
happened  thus :  — 

When  Luly  got  home  she  found  that 
her  pies  and  her  turnover  were  baked,  and 
were  lying  all  ready  for  her  on  the  kitchen- 
table.  She  did  not,  however,  feel  quite 
satisfied  with  herself  about  the  turnover, 
and  so  she  began  to  complain  to  Sophronia 
about  Benny's  injustice  in  claiming  it.  It 
often  happens  that  when  people  are  dissat- 
isfied with  themselves,  they  show  a  special 
disposition  to  complain  of  other  people, 
Luly,  in  finding  fault  with  Benny,  explained 
to  Sophronia  the  whole  case.  But  So- 
phronia, instead  of  taking  Luly's  part  de- 
cidedly, as  Luly  had  expected,  said, — 

"  Ah !  you  ought  to  let  him  have  it.  It 
was  just  the  same  thing  to  you  as  if  he 
had  really  drawn  you  himself,  and  it  was 
his  sled  that  you  rode  upon.  So  I  would 
have  given  it  to  him,  especially  as  you 
have  two  little  pies  besides,  to  say  noth- 
ing about  the  slices  of  big  ones  that  your 
mother  will  always  give  you." 

"  But  I  don't  like  the  slices  of  big  ones 
so  well  as  I  do  my  little  ones,"  said 
Luly. 


60          MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IX  WINTER. 

tt  Very  well,"  said  Sophronia.  "  Do  as 
you  please." 

Luly,  however,  was  not  quite  satisfied ; 
and  after  remaining  silent  and  thoughtful 
for  some  minutes,  she  said, — 

"  I  wish  I  had  given  him  the  turn- 
over." 

"  You  can  send  it  to  him  now,  if  you 
please,"  said  Sophronia.  u  I  am  going 
over  there  this  afternoon,  and  I  can  carry 
it  over." 

Luly  was  much  pleased  with  this  sug- 
gestion, and  determined  at  once  that  she 
would  adopt  it.  So  she  wrapped  up  the 
turnover  very  carefully  in  a  paper  and  gave 
it  to  Sophronia,  and  Sophrouia  carried  it 
to  Benny  that  afternoon. 

In  the  mean  time  Benny,  when  he  got 
home,  happened  to  find  his  Uncle  Edward 
there ;  and  his  head  being  full  of  the  turn- 
over question,  he  stated  the  case  to  Mr. 
Edward,  and  asked  him  whether  he  did 
not  think  that  he  really  drew  Luly  to  the 
pasture  by  holding  the  string  of  the  sled 
she  rode  upon,  while  he  himself  was  drawn 
upon  the  large  sled. 

tt  Why,  that  is  a  very  knotty  question," 


THE  CAMP-FIRE.  61 

said  Edward,  "  and  very  hard  to  answer. 
But  one  thing  is  clear,  and  that  is  that  you 
ought  not  to  have  insisted  on  having  the 
turnover.  You  broke  two  rules  by  doing 
so." 

«  What  rules  ?  "  asked  Benny. 

"  First,"  said  Edward,  "  that  it  was  a 
doubtful  claim ;  and  we  ought  never  to 
insist  upon  doubtful  claims  against  any- 
body." 

«  And  what  is  the  other  rule  ?  "  asked 
Benny. 

"  Why,  that  Luly  is  a  lady,"  said  Ed- 
ward ;  "  and  a  gentleman  in  dealing  with  a 
lady  ought  never  to  insist  upon  any  claim 
at  all. 

"  At  least,"  he  added,  after  a  moment's 
pause,  "  that  is  the  proper  rule  for  girls  and 
boys,  especially  in  dealing  with  sisters  and 
cousins,  and  so  I  advise  you  to  send  word 
to  Luly  that  you  give  up  your  claim  to  the 
turnover." 

«  Well,  I  will,"  said  Benny. 

And  so  h?  sent  that  message  by  Mr.  Ed- 
.ward,  who  said  he  was  going  to  Mary's 
that  very  afternoon,  and  would  tell  her,  if 
Benny  wished  it.  Benny  did  wish  it,  and 


62  MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

Mr.  Edward  took  the  message  ;  and  thus 
it  happened  that  he,  carrying  Benny's  re- 
nunciation of  the  claim,  and  Sophronia, 
bringing  the  turnover  itself,  passed  each 
other  on  the  way. 


iiilllliu,,, 


TOM  JINGO      P 


TOM  JINGO.  63 


CHAPTER  VII 

TOM   JINGO. 

ONE  day  pretty  early  in  the  winter  Luly 
had  a  party.  The  party  consisted  of  four 
or  five  children  from  the  neighborhood, 
whom  Luly  invited.  Mary  wrote  the  invi- ' 
tations  for  her.  Some  of  the  children  were 
girls  and  some  were  boys. 

The  party  was  in  the  afternoon,  but  the 
shutters  were  closed  and  the  lamps  were 
lighted,  so  as  to  make  it  look  like  evening. 

The  children,  when  they  came  together, 
had  quite  a  good  time  for  a  while  in  run- 
ning and  jumping  about  from  mere  ^glad- 
ness of  heart  and  fancying  that  it  was  in 
the  evening,  though  they  had  just  come 
from  the  broad  daylight  outside.  After  a 
while,  however,  they  wanted  to  play,  and 
Luly  went  out  into  the  other  room  to  find 
Mary  and  ask  her  if  she  would  not  come 
and  tell  them  something  to  play.  So  Mary 
came  in,  and  after  playing  common  plays 


64  MARY   GAY'S   WOIiK  IX   WINTER. 

with  them  for  a  short  time,  she  invented  a 
new  play  for  them,  which  she  called  Tom 
Jingo.  The  way  that  she  and  the  children 
played  it  was  this :  — 

Mary  first  called  the  children  all  around 
her,  to  give  them  the  preliminary  instruc- 
tions. 

"  We  are  going  to  play  the  play  of  Tom 
Jingo,"  said  she.  u  I  am  going  to  be  an 
old  woman  that  keeps  a  candy-store,  and 
you  must  all  come  to  me  in  turn,  one  after 
another,  to  buy  candy.  When  you  'come 
1  shall  ask  you  what  your  name  is,  and 
you  must  all  say  it  is  Tom  Jingo.  You 
must  say  you  have  not  got  any  money, 
and  that  you  want  me  to  trust  you  for  the 
pay.  So  I  shall  sell  you  some  candy,  and 
you  must  take  it,  and  go  away  and  eat  it. 

"  Then  by  and  by  I  shall  corne  after  you 
to  make  you  pay  me  what  you  owe  me ; 
and  you  must  all  run  away  and  hide,  or 
keep  out  of  my  way  as  well  as  you  can ; 
and  if  I  catch  any  of  you,  you  must  say 
that  you  are  not  Tom  Jingo,  and  must 
show  me  somebody  else  that  you  will  say 
is  Tom  Jingo,  and  then  I  shall  go  and  try 
to  catch  him  or  her." 


TOM  JINGO.  65 

The  children  thought  that  they  should 
like  this  play  very  much,  especially  as  there 
was  to  be  some  candy  to  eat  in  the  course 
of  it ;  and  they  began  clapping  their  hands 
and  capering  about  the  room,  while  Mary 
went  out  to  make  her  preparations. 

She  went  first  to  the  china  closet,  and 
there  took  from  the  sugar  bowl  —  having 
first  obtained  her  mother's  permission  — 
four  or  five  lumps  of  white  sugar.  She 
wrapped  these  lumps  —  one  at  a  time  —  in 
a  piece  of  paper,  and  then  struck  upon 
them  gently  with  the  pestle,  which  she  took 
out  of  the  mortar  for  the  purpose,  so  as 
to  crack  them  up  into  rather  small  pieces. 
She  took  care  to  strike  very  gently,  so  as 
only  to  crack  up  the  sugar,  and  not  to 
crush  it  to  powder. 

The  paper  in  which  the  lump  was  wrapped 
prevented  the  pieces  from  flying  away. 

When  she  had  thus  provided  herself  with 
a  sufficient  number  of  small  lumps, —  about 
enough,  as  she  supposed,  to  give  each  of  the 
children  two, —  she  put  them  into  a  saucer, 
and  then  went  to  dress  herself  up  as  an  old 
woman.  She  put  on  one  of  Benny's  straw 
hats,  and  tied  down  the  sides  of  it,  so  as  to 
5 


66          MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

make  it  look  like  a  bonnet.  She  also  put 
on  a  big  shawl,  wrong  side  out. 

Then  she  went  to  her  mother  and  bor- 
rowed an  old  pair  of  spectacles,  which  she 
put  on.  She  found,  however,  that  she  could 
not  see  very  well  if  she  looked  through  the 
spectacles,  and  besides  they  made  her  eyes 
ache.  So  she  slipped  them  forward,  down 
near  the  end  of  her  nose,  and  looked  over 
them. 

When  the  spectacles  were  thus  properly 
adjusted,  she  took  an  umbrella  which  she 
found  in  the  hall,  and  thus  equipped  she 
went  back  into  the  room  where  she  had 
left  the  children,  —  who  were  all  waiting, 
anxiously  expecting  her.  There  was  a  great 
shout  of  laughter  when  she  came  in. 

Mary  walked  across  the  room,  bending 
forward  very  much  and  sustaining  herself 
by  her  umbrella,  which  she  used  as  a  cane, 
as  if  she  were  very  old  and  infirm. 

She  began  talking  to  herself  as  she  walked 
thus  across  the  room, —  speaking,  however, 
in  a  feeble  and  drawling  manner,  which  the 
children  thought  was  very  funny. 

"  I  have  got  me  a  new  supply  of  candy," 
said  she,  "  and  I  am  going  to  open  my  shop. 


TOM  JINGO.  67 

I  hope  I  shall  have  some  good  customers. 
But  the  trouble  is,  suppose  I  sell  my  candy 
to  people  that  won't  pay.  Ah,  dear  me! 
what  shall  I  do  then  ?  If  they  don't  pay 
me,  I  '11  catch  them  and  put  them  into 
prison,  as  sure  as  my  name  is  Ma'am 
Taffy." 

While  talking  to  herself  in  this  way, 
Ma'am  Taffy,  as  she  called  herself,  had 
drawn  a  table  up  in  front  of  the  sofa,  and 
then  had  taken  her  seat  on  the  sofa,  with 
the  table  before  her,  and  was  now  taking 
out  the  lumps  of  sugar  from  the  saucer, 
and  arranging  them  regularly  in  rows  along 
a  small  sheet  of  white  paper,  which  she 
had  brought  with  her  for  the  purpose. 

The  children  thought  that  the  shop  was 
now  open ;  and  at  length,  after  some  little 
hesitation  and  delay  to  determine  who 
should  go  first,  Benny  went  forward  and 
said  he  wanted  to  buy  some  candy. 

"  Well,  my  dear,"  said  Ma'am  Taffy, 
"  and  where  is  your  money  ?  " 

"  I  have  not  got  any  money,"  said  Benny. 
"  I  want  you  to  trust  me." 

"  Trust  you  ?  "  repeated  Ma'am  Taffy. 
"  What  is  your  name  ?  " 


68  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  Tom  Jingo,"  said  Benny. 

"  Oh,  Tom  Jingo ! "  repeated  Ma'am  Taf- 
fy, in  a  tone  of  great  satisfaction.  "  Oh,  I 
did  not  know  you,  Tommy.  I  am  getting 
old  and  can't  see  very  well,  and  did  not 
know  you.  I  'm  willing  to  trust  Tom  Jin- 
go, for  he  always  pays  me.  Here  is  some 
candy  for  you.  The  price  of  it  is  two 
cents." 

So  saying,  she  gave  Benny  one  of  the 
little  lumps  of  sugar,  and  he,  putting  it  into 
his  mouth,  went  away,  cutting  an  extraor- 
dinary caper  at  the  same  time,  with  joy  at 
having  accomplished  the  business  of  mak- 
ing a  purchase  so  successfully. 

Next,  another  child  came,  —  a  girl, — 
who  wanted  also  to  buy  some  candy,  and, 
on  being  questioned,  said  her  name  was 
Tom  Jingo. 

"  Oh,  Tom  Jingo ! "  said  Ma'am  Taffy. 
"  I  have  not  seen  you  this  long  time.  Let 
me  see,  —  have  n't  I  seen  you  lately?  I 
'most  forget.  I  'm  getting  very  forgetful. 
But  I  'm  glad  you  have  come  to  buy  some 
of  my  candy.  There  's  a  piece,  —  two 
cents.  Give  me  the  money." 

"  Oh,    I    have    n't    got    any    money    to- 


TOM  JINGO.  69 

day,"  said  the  girl.  "  I  want  you  to  trust 
me." 

"  Trust  you  ?  "  asked  Ma'am  Taffy.  "  I 
don't  like  to  trust  out  my  candy  much,  if  I 
can  help  it ;  but  I  can  trust  you,  for  you 
always  pay  me  very  well.  There  's  the 
candy." 

So  the  girl  took  a  lump  of  the  sugar,  put 
it  in  her  mouth,  and  went  away,  and  imme- 
diately another  one  came. 

This  went  on  for  some  time,  Ma'am 
Taffy  talking  all  the  time,  partly  to  herself 
and  partly  to  her  customers,  and  varying 
her  conversation  with  each  one  so  as 
to  keep  all  the  children  entertained  and 
amused  She  seemed  to  forget  how  often 
Tom  Jingo  came,  though  sometimes  she 
half  remembered  it,  and  thanked  him  for 
being  such  a  good  customer. 

One  of  the  customers  was  a  lively  little 
girl  named  Fanny.  In  talking  with  Fanny, 
Ma'am  Taffy  said  that  she  had  been  very 
unlucky  lately,  especially  the  evening  be- 
fore, when  she  had  some  candy  on  the  fire, 
and  only  went  out  a  minute  to  get  some 
more  wood,  and  when  she  came  back  the 
candy  was  all  burned. 


70          MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  this  candy  is  a  little 
burned,"  said  Fanny.  "  Is  n't  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,"  exclaimed  Ma'am  Taffy.  "  It 
is  not  burned  a  bit.  It  was  burned  a  little 
when  I  first  took  it  off  the  fire  ;  but  when 
I  put  it  away  I  laid  some  cotton  over  it 
and  left  it  so  all  night ;  and  that  took  the 
fire  all  out  of  it.  Cotton  is  excellent  for 
all  kinds  of  burns." 

Some  of  the  children  laughed  very  loud 
at  this ;  but  others,  who  were  too  young 
to  perceive  the  absurdity  of  such  an  idea, 
looked  very  sober,  and  wondered  what  the 
others  were  laughing  at. 

Things  went  on  in  this  way  until,  at 
length,  all  the  lumps  of  sugar  were  sold 
and  eaten  ;  and  then  the  children,  accord- 
ing to  the  instructions  which  thev  had  re- 
ceived, began  to  scamper  away  and  hide 
in  nooks  and  corners.  Ma'am  Taffy,  at 
the  same  time,  began  talking  to  herself  as 
follows :  — 

"There!  I've  sold  all  my  candy  nicely 

to-day.  But  it  seems  to  me where  's 

my  money  ?  (feeling  in  her  pockets). 
Where  can  all  the  money  be  ?  Oh  !  now 
I  remember.  Tom  Jingo  bought  the  candy, 


TOM  JINGO.  71 

and  is  going  to  pay  me.  I  wonder  why 
he  don't  come.  I  wonder  where  he  is. 
1  must  go  and  find  him,  and  make  him 
pay  me." 

Here  the  children  began  to  crowd  closer 
into  their  hiding-places,  and  to  keep  as 
still  as  possible,  —  though  everywhere  there 
was  to  be  heard  the  sound  of  whisperings 
and  suppressed  laughter. 

Ma'am  Taffy  left  her  seat,  and  began 
going  about  the  room  to  find  Torn  Jingo. 
She  soon  discovered  and  laid  hold  of  Ben- 
ny, and  began  at  once  pulling  him  out 
with  gentle  and  playful  violence,  at  the 
same  time  squeezing  and  tickling  him,  as 
if  she  were  trying  to  pinch  him. 

"  You  little  rogue,"  said  she,  "  I  have 
caught  you.  I  know  you.  You  are  Tom 
Jingo,  and  you  owe  me  two  cents  for  the 
candy  you.  bought  of  me.  Give  me  my 
money !  " 

So,  under  pretence  of  getting  the  money 
out  of  Benny's  pocket,  she  tickled  him 
under  the  arms  and  in  the  sides,  Benny 
protesting  all  the  time,  as  well  as  he  could, 
• —  though  he  could  hardly  speak  on  ac- 
count of  his  laughing,  —  that  he  was  not 
Tom  Jingo. 


72  MARY  GAT'S   WORK   IN  WINTER. 

"  Then,  where  is  Tom  Jingo  ? "  said 
Ma'am  Taffy. 

"  He  's  over  there,"  said  Benny,  pointing 
to  one  of  the  hiding-places. 

Ma'am  Taffy  went  at  once  in  the  direc- 
tion indicated,  whereupon  the  children  in 
that  place  started  out  and  ran  away.  She 
caught  one  of  them,  however,  and  treated 
him  much  as  she  had  treated  Benny,  and 
began  dragging  him  off  to  jail.  Upon  his 
repeated  protestations,  however,  that  he 
was  not  Tom  Jingo,  but  that  somebody 
else  was,  she  soon  let  go  of  him  and  seized 
another  child ;  and  while  she  was  attempt- 
ing to  get  the  money  from  him,  some  other 
children  came  out  from  their  hiding-places, 
and  said  that  they  were  Tom  Jingo,  and 
danced  around  her,  as  if  in  defiance.  So 
she  would  let  go  of  one  and  make  a  rush 
at  another,  in  rapid  succession,  until  the 
whole  room  was  full  of  noise,  confusion, 
and  uncontrollable  peals  of  laughter. 

At  length,  after  continuing  this  tumult 
for  some  time,  Mary  suddenly  stopped, 
said  "  No  play,"  took  off  her  spectacles 
and  her  bonnet  and  shawl,  and  laid  them 
all  down  upon  the  table,  and  then  went 


TOM  JINGO.  73 

and  took  her  seat  in  the  corner  of  the  sofa, 
in  her  own  proper  character. 

The  children  all  liked  this  play  very 
much  indeed.  And  well  they  might  be 
pleased  with  a  play  which  began  with  eat- 
ing lumps  of  sugar,  and  ended  in  a  great 
frolic  and  noise.  There  were  many  little 
children  there,  too  young  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  play  at  all,  but  who, 
nevertheless,  liked  it  as  well  as  any  of  the 
rest.  They  saw  Mary  dressed  up  like  an 
old  woman,  and  heard  some  funny  talk, 
and  had  some  lumps  of  sugar  to  eat,  and 
finally  had  a  great  frolic  of  running  about, 
and  of  being  caught  and  let  go  again,  and 
of  shouts  of  laughter ;  all  of  which  they 
enjoyed  very  highly,  though  they  knew 
very  little  what  it  all  meant.  They  were, 
however,  unanimously  of  opinion  that  the 
play  of  Tom  Jingo  was  one  of  the  very 
best  games  they  ever  played. 


74  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   JUNK-STORE. 

AT  the  house  where  Mary  and  Luly 
lived  there  was  a  large  unfinished  room 
over  the  kitchen  and  part  of  the  shed, 
which  had  in  former  years  been  used  as  a 
shop.  There  were  two  windows  facing 
the  south.  In  front  of  these  windows  was 
a  long  bench,  such  as  carpenters  use.  The 
bench  had  been  allowed  to  remain,  but  the 
tools  had  been  taken  away,  and  the  chil- 
dren now  used  the  room  as  a  play-room, 
especially  in  sunny  days  in  the  winter;  for 
then  the  sun  shone  in  so  pleasantly  through 
the  two  windows  upon  the  bench,  and 
across  the  bench  upon  the  floor,  as  to  make 
the  place  look  warm,  although  it  might 
really  be  very  cold.  And  even  in  cloudy 
and  stormy  days  the  place  had  a  snug  and 
comfortable  look,  which  made  it  quite  at- 
tractive to  the  children  as  a  place  to  go 
and  play  in,  especially  as  there  was  a  swing 


THE  JUNK-STORE.  75 

there  and  a  rocking-boat,  and  other  means 
and  appliances  for  exercise  and  amuse- 
ment. 

Of  course,  when  the  children  went  to 
this  room  in  the  winter,  they  always  wore 
warm  outside  clothing,  just  as  if  they  were 
going  out  of  doors. 

One  day  in  January,  Mary  and  Luly 
were  playing  in  this  room,  in  company  with 
a  little  boy  who  lived  in  one  of  the  neigh- 
boring houses.  The  boy's  name  was  Rich- 
ard, but  they  commonly  called  him  Dickey. 

The  children  amused  themselves  for 
some  time  in  rocking  themselves  in  what 
they  called  the  rocking-boat,  which  was  a 
kind  of  box  made  somewhat  in  the  form 
of  a  boat,  with  seats  like  the  thwarts  of  a 
boat  extending  across  it,  one  at  each  end, 
arid  one  in  the  middle,  and  two  long  rock- 
ers formed  by  the  two  sides.  The  children 
used  to  rock  in  this  boat,  making  believe 
that  they  were  out  at  sea,  rocked  and  tossed 
by  the  winds  and  waves. 

Sometimes  they  would  play  that  there 
was  a  violent  storm,  and  then  they  would 
rock  the  boat  to  and  fro  with  great  vio- 
lence ;  and  at  length,  when  they  were  tired 


76  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

of  the  exertion  which  this  occasioned  them, 
they  would  play  that  the  storm  was  abat- 
ing and  the  waves  going  down  ;  and  final- 
ly they  would  allow  the  motion  of  the 
boat  to  die  entirely  away.  Then  they 
would  play  that  they  had  arrived  at  some 
port,  and  would  all  get  out  and  make  be- 
lieve run  about  on  the  land,  and  would 
talk  together  in  a  very  animated  manner 
about  the  strange  sights  which  they  saw 
there,  or  hold  conversations  with  imaginary 
custom-house  officers,  hotel-keepers,  and 
others. 

Then,  after  a  time,  they  would  conclude 
to  resume  their  voyage,  and  would  all  em- 
bark again  on  board  their  vessel,  and  make 
believe  sail  away,  rocking  themselves  to 
and  fro  as  before. 

The  boat,  when  the  children  were  rock- 
ing it,  especially  if  they  rocked  it  fast,  did 
not  remain  always  in  the  same  place,  but 
seemed  to  work  itself,  as  it  were,  about  the 
floor,  so  as  to  take  the  passengers  pretend- 
ing to  sail  in  it  to  different  parts  of  the 
room,  or,  as  they  called  it,  to  different  coun- 
tries. At  one  time  it  brought  them  up  to 
the  bench  ;  and  when  they  got  out,  in  pre- 


THE  JUNK-STORE.  77 

tending  to  land,  Mary's  eye  fell  upon  a 
box  upon  the  bench,  which  contained  a 
number  of  pieces  of  old  iron,  such  as  rings, 
odd  castors,  nails,  screws,  and  broken  tools. 

"  Let  's  play  that  this  is  an  iron-mer- 
chant's," said  Mary ;  "  and  we  will  buy  a 
cargo  of  iron  and  put  into  our  ship." 

So  she  began  to  hold  an  imaginary  con- 
versation with  the  iron-merchant,  making 
bargains  for  particular  pieces  of  iron,  and 
putting  them,  as  fast  as  she  purchased 
them,  into  the  ship. 

All  at  once  she  stopped,  as  if  a  new  idea 
had  suddenly  come  to  her  mind,  and  said : 

"  Luly,  why  could  not  we  have  a  junk- 
store,  like  John  and  Benny's,  and  then  we 
could  keep  store,  and  buy  and  sell  things 
whenever  we  pleased  ?  " 

"  Only,"  said  Luly,  "  we  have  not  got 
any  box." 

"  Mother  would  let  us  have  a  drawer," 
said  Mary.  "  If  she  would  let  us  have  the 
lowest  drawer  in  the  secretary,  or  in  one 
of  her  bureaus,  it  would  be  just  the  thing. 
Some  of  these  very  things  would  do  for 
the  junk." 

And  here  I  must  explain  that  the  word 


78  MARY    GAY'S    WORK   IX    WINTER. 

junk  means,  strictly  speaking,  pieces  of  old 
worn-out  and  broken  ropes  and  cordage, 
or  ends  of  new  ropes  cut  off  as  waste  in 
fitting  the  rigging  of  a  ship.  You  might 
suppose  that  such  things  would  be"  of  no 
value  ;  but  they  are  in  fact  all  carefully 
saved  and  sold  as  junk  to  men  who  keep 
stores  for  buying  and  taking  care  of  this 
kind  of  material. 

If  this  book  were  written  for  boys,  it 
would  hardly  be  necessary  to  explain  what 
is  done  with  the  junk  thus  collected  and 
saved,  as  boys  generally  know  all  about 
this.  But  for  girls  it  may  be  necessary  to 
explain  that  the  junk  is  made  into  oakum 
for  calking  the  seams  of  vessels.  The  bits 
of  rope  are  all  untwisted,  and  the  strands 
picked  open,  so  as  to  separate  the  fibres. 
The  fibres  thus  separated  form  a  substance 
like  tow,  called  oakum,  which  is  afterward 
to  be  driven  into  the  seams  of  vessels,  to 
make  the  joints  tight. 

In  all  seaports  where  ships  come  in  from 
sea,  there  are  men  who  keep  little  shops 
along  the  streets  which  are  near  the  wharves 
and  piers,  and  buy  the  junk  that  is  offered 
to  them,  in  order  to  have  it  made  into 


THE  JUNK-STORE.  79 

oakum,  when  they  sell  it  again  at  a  great 
profit. 

But  the  men  who  keep  these  junk-stores 
not  only  buy  the  junk  that  is  brought  to 
them,  but  also  often  do  a  great  business  in 
buying  a  variety  of  other  things  which  are 
useless  when  held  singly  by  separate  own- 
ers, but  which,  when  collected  in  large 
quantities,  become  valuable.  The  things 
that  they  buy  in  this  way  are  rags,  bottles, 
old  iron,  brass,  copper,  lead,  tin,  and  other 
metals,  old  broken  tools,  old  locks,  odd 
keys,  and  all  such  things.  Some  of  these 
things  they  sell  to  be  used  again,  as,  for 
instance,  locks  and  keys,  which  sometimes 
accidentally  fit  together.  Or,  a  man  who 
has  lost  his  key  may  perhaps  find  a  key 
that  will  fit  his  lock  at  one  of  these  junk- 
stores. 

In  the  same  manner,  if  a  boy  has  broken 
one  of  his  skates,  he  may  perhaps  find  a 
tolerable  match  to  the  other  one  among  the 
collection  of  odd  skates  which  the  junk- 
man will  have. 

Now,  John  and  Benny  had  a  junk-store 
in  a  long  shallow  box  that  they  kept  under 
a  secretary  in  the  back  hall  at  their  house. 


80  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IX  WINTER. 

There  was  a  ring  in  the  front  of  this  box, 
by  means  of  which  they  could  draw  it  out 
when  they  wished  to  play  with  their  store. 
This  was  what  Luly  alluded  to  when  she 
spoke  of  their  not  having  any  box,  as  a 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  their  having  such  a 
store. 

Mary's  suggestion,  however,  of  obtaining 
the  use  of  a  drawer  from  her  mother, 
seemed  to  remove  this  difficulty;  and  so 
the  children,  after  putting  the  iron  back 
into  the  box  from  which  they  had  taken  it, 
so  as  to  leave  the  play-room  in  proper  or- 
der, went  all  together  down-stairs,  Mary 
leading  the  way. 

Mrs.  Gay,  after  hearing  their  request, 
made  a  number  of  inquiries  before  she 
gave  an  answer.  She  perceived  at  once 
that  it  might  put  her  to  some  inconven- 
ience to  vacate  one  of  her  drawers,  and 
she  was  not  willing  to  do  it  merely  to  grat- 
ify a  passing  caprice  of  the  children,  and 
furnish  them  with  a  means  of  amusement 
which  would  last  perhaps  for  only  a  single 
occasion.  She  was,  however,  very  willing 
to  do  it,  if  the  plan  was  of  a  kind  to  fur- 
nish a  permanent  resource  for  occupation 


THE  JUNK-STORE.  81 

and  amusement  on  stormy  days,  and  at 
other  times  during  the  winter  when  Mary 
and  Luly  could  not  go  out  of  doors. 

"  How  long  have  John  and  Benny  had 
their  junk-store  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Oh,  a  long  time,"  said  Mary. 

"  And  do  they  play  with  it  much  ?  " 

"  Yes,  a  great  deal,"  said  Mary.  "  At 
least  they  have  played  with  it  a  great  deal ; 
but  John  don't  care  so  much  about  it  now, 
because  he  is  getting  too  old  to  play  keep 
store.  But  he  goes  to  the  box  very  often 
to  get  something  that  he  wants  to  use  in 
his  shop,  about  some  of  his  works." 

"  How  did  they  play  keep  store  ?  "  asked 
Mrs.  Gay. 

"  They  had  two  boards  for  counters," 
said  Mary.  "John  had  one  and  Benny 
had  one.  These  boards  were  smooth,  and 
not  very  long;  and  they  used  to  put  two 
chairs  a  little  way  apart,  and  lay  the  board 
across  from  one  to  the  other.  And  this, 
you  see,  made  a  good  counter." 

"  Yes,  I  see,"  said  Mrs.  Gay.  « And 
when  they  get  the  counters  placed,  what 
do  they  do  then  ?  How  do  they  play  ?  " 

«  Why,  they  take  the  things  out  of  the 


82  MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

iunk-box,  and  put  them  on  the  counters. 
John  takes  some  of  the  things  for  his  coun- 
ter, and  Benny  takes  some  for  his.  Then 
they  go  back  and  forth  to  each  other's 
stores  to  buy." 

"  What  do  they  do  for  money  ?  " 

"  Oh,  they  have  got  plenty  of  money," 
said  Mary.  "  John  made  it.  But  I  don't 
know  what  we  should  do  for  money.  Can 
you  think  of  anything,  mother,  that  we 
could  have  for  money  ?  " 

The  first  thing  that  Mrs.  Gay  thought  of, 
as  a  substitute  for  money,  was  buttons,  and 
the  next  thing,  button-mow  Ids,  which  come 
of  different  sizes,  and  can  be  bought  by  the 
dozen  on  strings  for  a  very  few  cents.  In- 
deed she  said  she  thought  she  had  a  sup- 
ply of  such  button-moulds  in  one  of  her 
drawers. 

"  If  I  find  that  I  have  some,"  said  she, 
"  I  will  call  my  drawer  the  bank,  and  I 
will  lend  you  some  money  from  it.  Mer- 
chants very  often  borrow  money  at  the 
bank  when  they  begin  their  business." 

The  children  were  greatly  pleased  with 
this  suggestion,  and  Mary  said,  — 

"  Then  we  may  have  one  of  the  draw 
ers  ?  " 


THE  JUNK-STORK.  8& 

«  Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Gay.  «  I  will  lei 
you  have  a  drawer,  and  I  will  give  you 
leave  to  look  all  over  the  house,  in  all  the 
closets  and  drawers ;  and  wherever  you 
find  anything  that  is  broken  so  as  to  be  use 
less,  you  may  have  it  for  your  junk-shop, 
provided  that  I  may  go  to  it  at  any  time 
and  take  out  anything  that  I  want." 

This  condition  was  agreed  to,  and  the 
children  at  once  began  to  make  their  col 
lection  ;  and  a  very  odd  collection  it  was, 
when  they  got  it  together,  I  assure  you.  It 
consisted  of  broken  knob:-,  odd  castors  that 
had  come  off  from  furniture  when  a  new 
set  had  been  put  on,  knife-handles  from 
which  the  blades  had  been  broken  off, 
curtain -rings,  spare  keys,  many  of  them 
broken  and  useless  except  for  playthings. 
There  was  a  carpet-hammer  without  any 
handle,  and  a  brad-awl  handle  without  any 
brad-awl,  and  several  knobs,  and  brass 
hooks  of  various  kinds,  arid  odd  knitting- 
needles,  and  other  such  things  too  numer- 
ous to  mention.  Indeed  all  the  old  broken 
and  useless  things  that  had  been  lying 
about  the  house  and  encumbering  the  clos- 
ets and  drawers  for  years  had  now  sud« 


84  MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

denly  acquired  a  special  value ;  and  every- 
thing, no  matter  what  it  might  be,  helped 
to  make  up  the  assortment  of  goods  required 
to  open  the  junk-store  in  a  satisfactory 
manner. 

There  were  two  wine-glasses,  with  the 
foot  of  each  broken  off',  which  Mary  found 
on  an  upper  shelf  of  the  china  closet.  These 
wine-glasses  were  somewhat  bowl-shaped, 
instead  of  being  conical,  as  wine-glasses 
usually  are,  —  the  sides  being  convex  out- 
ward, so  that  they  looked  like  little  bell- 
glasses,  with  the  stem  still  remaining  to 
serve  for  handles  to  take  them  up  by ;  for 
the  stems  had  been  broken  off  close  to  the 
foot. 

When  Mary  and  Luly  brought  these 
wine-glasses  to  their  mother  to  ask  if  they 
might  have  them  for  their  store,  she  at  first 
thought  that  they  would  not  be  safe  play- 
things, inasmuch  as  the  ends  of  the  stems, 
where  the  fractures  had  taken  place,  pre- 
sented sharp  edges  by  which  the  children 
might  cut  their  fingers. 

The  children  wished  to  have  the  glasses 
very  much,  intending  to  use  them  for  bells. 
They  found  on  holding  them  by  the  stem, 


THE  JUNK-STORE.  85 

and  striking  the  margin  of  the  glass  gently 
with  the  blade  of  a  table-knife,  that  they 
emitted  a  very  pleasant  sound. 

"  If  we  could  only  contrive  to  hang  a 
round  button  inside  of  them  for  a  clapper," 
said  Mary,  "  they  would  make  very  good 
bells." 

"  Only,"  said  Mrs.  Gay,  "  every  time  you 
attempted  to  ring  them  you  would  be  in 
danger  of  cutting  your  fingers  with  the 
edge  of  the  glass  where  it  is  broken." 

"  Is  n't  there  any  way  that  we  can  smooth 
the  glass  ?  *'  asked  Mary. 

"  Perhaps  Uncle  Edward  can  tell  you  of 
a  way  the  next  time  he  comes,"  said  Mrs. 
Gay. 

"  /  know  of  a  way,"  said  Mary.  "  I  can 
put  some  sealing  -  wax  on  the  place.  I 
can  melt  some  sealing-wax  and  put  it  on, 
and  then  round  it  over  and  make  a  little 
knob." 

"  That  would  do,  perhaps,"  said  Mrs. 
Gay.  "  Or  possibly  you  might  grind  the 
roughness  off  upon  the  grindstone." 

There  was  a  small  grindstone  in  a  back- 
room of  the  house  where  Mary  lived,  which 
was*  used  for  grinding  knives  and  other 


86          MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

household  implements,  and  also  sometimes 
by  Jotham  for  grinding  axes  and  scythes. 

The  children  determined  to  adopt  one  or 
the  other  of  these  plans  on  some  future 
day,  and  in  the  mean  time  went  out  and 
found  two  boards  to  use  as  counters.  They 
made  the  boards  serve  this  purpose  by 
supporting  the  two  ends  of  each  upon  two 
chairs  placed  at  proper  distances  apart,  and 
then  they  commenced  keeping  store.  Luly 
had  one  store  and  Richard  the  other.  They 
were  the  retailers.  Mary  stationed  herself 
at  the  drawer  which  contained  the  junk, 
playing  that  she  was  the  wholesale  mer- 
chant, to  sell  them  the  goods  which  they 
were  to  put  into  their  stores.  They  paid 
for  them  with  the  buttons  which  Mrs.  Gay 
had  given  them.  The  large  buttons  were 
half  dollars,  the  middle-sized  ones  ten-cent 
pieces,  and  the  small  ones  cents. 

The  children  amused  themselves  in  this 
way  a  long  time. 


fllE  GLASS   BELLS.  87 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE    GLASS    BELLS. 

IN  the  course  of  a  week  or  two  after  this 
time,  the  children  attempted  two  quite  im- 
portant mechanical  operations  in  connec- 
tion with  the  junk-store, —  one  relating  to 
the  bells  which  they  undertook  to  make, 
and  the  other  the  mending  and  re-covering 
of  certain  paper  boxes  which  their  mother 
gave  them. 

They  succeeded  in  the  end  in  both  these 
operations,  though  they  encountered  some 
serious  difficulties  at  the  outset. 

In  respect  to  the  glass  bells,  Mary  tried 
at  first  to  cover  the  broken  end  of  the  stem 
with  sealing-wax,  but  she  found  that  she 
could  not  make  the  sealing-wax  stick  to 
the  glass.  She  succeeded  pretty  well  in 
melting  the  sealing-wax  in  the  flame  of  a 
lamp,  and  then  in  forming  a  sort  of  knob 
or  button  with  it  on  the  end  of  the  stem, 
but  she  found  that  it  would  not  stick  there. 


88  MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

When  she  took  hold  of  it,  and  attempted 
to  lift  the  glass  with  it,  the  knob  of  sealing- 
wax  would  peal  off,  leaving  the  sharp  edges 
of  the  glass  as  bare  as  before. 

"  Never  mind,  Luly,"  said  she,  when  she 
found  that  this  plan  would  not  succeed. 
"  We  will  try  the  other  plan.  We  will 
grind  the  glass  smooth  on  the  grind- 
stone. That  will  be  a  great  deal  better 
way." 

So  they  put  on  some  warm  clothing,  and 
taking  a  tin  mug  full  of  water  with  them, 
they  went  out  to  the  grindstone.  But  this 
plan  failed  as  the  other  had  done.  As  soon 
as  they  poured  the  water  upon  the  grind- 
stone, the  film  of  water  which  spread  over 
it  was  immediately  frozen,  and  then  of 
course  the  whole  surface  was  covered  with 
a  thin  coating  of  ice  which  caused  the  end 
of  the  glass  to  slip  along  when  the  stone 
was  turned,  without  being  ground  away 
at  all. 

When  they  came  back  into  the  kitchen, 
bringing  with  them  the  mug  and  the  two 
glasses,  Sophronia  was  there,  and  Mary 
told  her  that  they  had  been  out  to  grind 
some  glasses  smooth,  but  that  they  could 


THE  GLASS   BELLS.  89 

not  do  it,  for  the  water  turned  into  ice  as 
fast  as  they  put  it  on  the  stone. 

"  Of  course,"  said  Sophronia,  "  if  you 
took  cold  water.  Who  would  ever  think 
of  grinding  with  cold  water  such  sharp 
weather  as  this.  You  ought  to  have  taken 
hot  water." 

"  So  we  ought,"  said  Mary.  "  Let  us 
go  again,  Luly." 

So  Mary  poured  out  what  remained  of 
the  cold  water  from  the  rnug,  and  So- 
phronia then  filled  the  mug  about  two 
thirds  full  of  hot  water,  from  the  tea-kettle 
on  the  stove. 

"I  must  not  fill  it  too  full,"  said  she, 
"  for  fear  that  you  may  spill  it  over  in  car- 
rying it,  and  so  scald  yourselves." 

Mary  took  the  mug  with  the  hot  water 
contained  in  it,  and  went  out  again  with 
Luly  to  the  back-room  where  the  grind- 
stone stood.  She  poured  some  of  the  hot 
water  on  the  stone,  and  then,  while  Luly 
turned  it,  she  held  the  stem  of  one  of  the 
wine-glasses  upon  it  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  grind  off  the  sharp  edges  of  the  glass, 
By  turning  the  glass  in  her  hand  as  she 
held  it  on  the  stone,  she  succeeded  in 


90  MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IX  WINTER. 

rounding  over  the  end  and  in  making  it 
smooth  and  true. 

After  having  finished  grinding  the  first 
glass,  Mary  found  that  the  water  was  be- 
ginning to  freeze  upon  the  stone.  So 
she  poured  some  more  hot  water  upon 
it,  and  then  began  with  the  second  glass. 
This  she  smoothed  in  the  same  manner, 
and  then  she  and  Luly  came  into  the 
house. 

"  New,"  said  Mary,  "  we  have  got  two 
bells,  one  for  you  and  one  for  me,  only 
when  we  wish  to  ring  them  we  shall  have 
to  hold  them  up  with  one  hand,  and  strike 
them  on  the  outside  with  something  or 
other,  because  you  see  our  bells  have  not 
any  clappers.  I  wish  they  had  some  clap- 
pers." 

"  Could  not  you  make  a  clapper  out  of  a 
button  ?  "  asked  Luly. 

"  There  is  no  way  to  fasten  it  in,"  said 
Mary. 

Their  uncle  Edward,  however,  told  them 
a  few  evenings  afterward  how  they  could 
fasten  the  clappers  in,  and  helped  them  do 
it.  He  said  it  was  to  be  done  with  sealing- 


THE  GLASS   BELLS.  91 

"But  the  sealing-wax  won't  stick  to 
glass,"  said  Mary.  "  We  tried  it." 

"  That  is  because  you  did  not  heat  the 
glass  as  well  as  the  sealing-wax,"  said  Mr. 
Edward.  u  For  some  reason  or  other  —  I 
don't  know  what  —  sealing-wax  will  not 
stick  to  anything  that  is  not  itself  made  as 
hot  as  the  melted  wax  is  that  you  put  on. 
So  if  you  wish  to  make  sealing-wax  stick 
to  iron,  or  marble,  or  glass,  or  anything  of 
that  kind,  you  must  heat  the  thing  first  hot 
enough  to  melt  the  sealing-wax  when  it 
is  pressed  against  it.  Then  the  wax  will 
stick." 

"  But  sealing-wax  will  stick  to  paper," 
said  Mary,  "  without  our  heating  the  paper 
beforehand." 

This  is  true,  and  there  is  a  curious  rea- 
son for  it,  which  reason  Edward  explained 
to  Mary  and  Luly  while  they  were  talking 
together  on  the  subject,  —  though  I  confess 
I  don't  think  that  Luly  understood  it  very 
well. 

The  reason  why  sealing-wax  will  stick 
to  paper,  pasteboard,  wood,  or  anything  of 
that  kind,  by  being  merely  dropped  upon  it 
hot,  is,  that  those  substances  are  what  are 


92  MARY   GAY'S  WOKK   IN   WINTER. 

called  bad  conductors  of  heat.  This  is 
a  learned  phrase,  which  means  that  heat 
cannot  pass  away  easily  through  them. 
Thus  when  sealing-wax  is  dropped  upon 
a  wooden  table,  for  example,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  wood  being  in  this  way  a 
bad  conductor,  the  heat  of  the  wax  cannot 
easily  pass  down  into  the  substance  of  it, 
but  remains  near  the  wax,  so  that  that  part 
of  the  wood  becomes  nearly  as  hot  as  the 
wax  is,  and  then  they  both  cool  together, 
and  so  firmly  adhere  to  each  other. 

In  respect  to  marble,  or  glass,  or  iron,  the 
case  is  different.  These  are  all  better  con- 
ductors of  heat  than  wood  or  paper,  and 
consequently  when  a  drop  of  melted  wax 
falls  upon  them,  the  heat  passes  very  quick 
down  into  the  substance  of  them,  and  does 
not  remain  to  heat  the  part  which  the  wax 
touches.  Thus  the  wax  cools  in  contact 
with  a  comparatively  cold  substance,  and 
does  not  adhere. 

If,  however,  you  heat  the  marble,  or  the 
iron  or  the  glass,  beforehand,  so  as  to  make 
it  as  hot  as  the  melted  wax  will  be,  and 
then  drop  the  wax  upon  it  and  leave  them 
both  to  cool  together,  the  wax  will  then 


THE  GLASS   BELLS.  93 

Edward  explained  all  this  to  Mary,  and 
told  her  that  in  order  to  make  the  wax 
stick  to  the  end  of  the  glass  stem,  the  glass 
should  first  have  been  heated. 

"  But  that  would  break  it,"  said  Mary. 

"  No,"  replied  Edward,"  not  if  you  heated 
it  slowly.  You  may  heat  glass  hot  enough 
to  melt  it  without  its  breaking,  if  you  heat 
it  slowly.  It  i.s  only  when  you  heat  it  too 
suddenly  that  there  is  danger,  for  then  one 
part  gets  hot  before  another  part,  and  thus 
the  glass  swells  unequally,  and  so  is  apt  to 
crack." 

In  further  conversation  about  the  bells, 
Mary  asked  Edward  in  respect  to  clappers 
for  them,  and  Edward  said  that  he  thought 
that  clappers  might  be  put  in  by  means  of 
sealing-wax. 

"  I  will  see,"  said  he,  "  if  I  cannot  put  a 
clapper  into  one ;  and  you  may  see  how  1 
do  it,  and  then  you  can  try  to  put  one  in 
the  other." 

So  Edward  sent  Mary  to  her  mother,  to 
borrow  her  box  of  buttons.  Mary  soon 
returned,  bringing  a  small  pasteboard  box. 
Tt  had  a  cover,  though  the  corners  of  the 
cover  were  all  broken  apart.  On  taking 


94          MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

off  the  cover,  the  box  was  found  to  be 
half  full  of  buttons  of  all  shapes  and  sizes. 
From  among  these,  Edward  selected  two, 
one  round  one  and  one  flat  one. 

He  then  took  a  short  piece  of  fine  but 
strong  twine,  about  two  inches  long,  and 
lied  one  end  of  it  to  the  round  button 
and  the  other  to  the  flat  one.  He  meas- 
ured as  he  did  this,  so  as  to  make  the 
twine  just  long  enough  to  bring  the  round 
button  in  the  right  position  to  strike  the 
margin  of  the  glass  when  the  flat  button 
should  be  cemen'ed  with  sealing-wax  into 
the  bottom  of  it  inside. 

Then  he  began  to  hold  the  glass  near  the 
stove,  in  the  kitchen,  to  get  it  warm.  As  it 
gradually  grew  warm  he  held  it  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  when  it  began  to  bo  quite  hot 
he  put  his  gloves  on,  to  prevent  its  burning 
his  fingers.  At  length,  when  it  had  become 
very  hot,  he  heated  the  end  of  the  stick  of 
sealing-wax  in  a  lamp  which  Mary  held  for 
him,  and  carefully  dropped  five  or  six  drops 
of  the  wax  into  the  bottom  of  the  wine- 
glass. 

The  glass  being  very  hot,  the  wax  re- 
mained melted  in  the  bottom  of  it,  and 


THE  GLASS  BELLS.  95 

united  itself  intimately  with  the  glass. 
Mr.  Edward  then  took  the  two  buttons, 
which,  as  has  already  been  explained,  were 
united  by  a  short  piece  of  twine,  and,  hold- 
ing the  round  one  in  his  hand,  he  let  the 
flat  one  down  gently  upon  the  stove  and  al- 
lowed it  to  remain  there  a  moment  until  it 
became  hot,  and  then  he  lowered  it  down 
carefully  into  the  wine-glass  until  it  reached 
the  wax  and  sank  into  it.  He  took  care  to 
cause  it  to  settle  into  the  wax  as  nearly  as 
possible  in  the  middle  of-  the  glass,  and 
when  it  was  thus  adjusted  he  carried  the 
whole  away  toward  the  window,  to  let  it  all 
cool.  He  held  the  round  button  in  his  hand 
all  the  time,  to  prevent  the  string  from  fall- 
ing down  into  the  soft  wax. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  wax  was  cool,  and 
then  turning  the  bell  over,  with  the  open 
part  down,  he  found  that  the  clapper  was 
kept  in  its  place  very  well,  and  that  the 
bell  would  ring  nicely. 

"  Let  me  take  it,"  said  Luly,  eagerly,  and 
holding  up  both  hands;  "  let  me  ring  it." 

«  No,"  said  Mary ;  "  let  me  take  it." 

«  Luly  shall  have  it  first,"  said  Mr.  Ed- 
ward, "  for  she  is  the  youngest.  It  is  a 


96  MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

matter  of  indulgence.  In  matters  of  com 
mand  and  duty  the  oldest  takes  precedence 
in  matters  of  indulgence,  the  youngest." 

So  Luly  took  the  bell,  and  began  run- 
ning about  and  ringing  it,  —  apparently 
greatly  pleased  with  the  result  of  the  oper- 
ation. 

Presently  she  gave  it  to  Mary,  who  rang 
it  too,  and  examined  it  attentively  in  every 
part,  and  then  immediately  undertook  to 
prepare  the  other  glass  in  the  same  way. 
Only  her  Uncle  Edward  advised  her  that 
instead  of  melting  the  sealing-wax  sepa- 
rately, and  dropping  it  into  the  bottom  of 
the  glass,  she  should  break  off  a  small  piece 
and  lay  it  in,  and  then  melt  it  through  the 
glass,  by  slowly  and  carefully  heating  the 
glass. 

"  In  this  way,"  said  he,  "  you  will  avoid 
the  danger  of  dropping  the  hot  sealing-wax 
on  the  stove  or  on  the  floor." 

Mary  accordingly  adopted  this  plan.  She 
selected  two  buttons,  one  round  and  one 
flat  one,  and  tied  them  together  with  a 
piece  of  twine.  Then  she  broke  off  a  piece 
of  the  sealing-wax  and  put  it  into  the  bot- 
tom of  the  glass ;  and  finally,  after  heating 


THE  GLASS   BELLS.  97 

the  glass  very  carefully  over  the  stove  until 
the  wax  was  melted,  she  let  the  flat  button 
down  into  it,  until  it  was  well  imbedded  in 
it,  when  she  carried  the  whole  to  the  win- 
dow to  let  the  wax  cool.  Her  bell  was 
then  complete,  and  it  was  as  good  as  the 
one  which  Mr.  Edward  had  made. 

Mary  kept  the  bell  which  she  made  for 
herself,  and  gave  the  other  to  Luly,  and 
they  played  with  them  a  great  deal,  when 
keeping  store,  and  also  at  other  times. 
When  playing  store,  each  of  the  girls 
would  keep  her  bell  on  her  counter,  and 
ring  it  when  she  opened  the  store,  and  also 
again  when  she  shut  it  up,  to  make  believe 
go  to  dinner,  or  for  any  other  purpose. 
Luly,  in  fact,  used  to  open  and  shut  her 
store  very  often,  for  the  first  few  days,  just 
for  the  purpose  of  having  a  pretext  for 
ringing  her  bell. 


MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE    ART    OF    TEACHING. 

MARY  succeeded  very  well  in  teaching 
Luly  to  darn.  In  fact,  she  managed  the 
business  with  a  great  deal  of  tact  and  skill. 
She  took  care  never  to  call  her  away  ab- 
ruptly from  any  work  or  play  in  which  she 
was  interested.  She  also  usually  let  Luly 
darn  when  she  was  darning  herself,  because 
she  had  observed  that  little  children  gen- 
erally like  to  do  what  the  older  ones  are 
doing.  It  would  accordingly  have  been 
bad  management,  she  knew,  to  have  set 
Luly  at  work  to  darn  while  she  was  mak- 
ing pies,  or  doing  anything  else  which  Luly 
would  like  to  do  too. 

Another  thing  in  which  she  showed  her 
dexterity  was  in  allowing  Luly  to  stand 
and  look  over  her  while  she  was  darning, 
to  see  how  the  work  was  done,  talking  to 
her  all  the  time  in  a  playful  and  amusing, 
manner.  When  she  was  weaving  in  the 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.  99 

cross- threads  she  would  address  the  needle 
as  if  it  was  a  living  thing,  calling  it  Sharp- 
nose  and  little  Rogue. 

"  Now,  little  Sharpnose,"  she  would  say, 
"  mind  that  you  come  up  and  go  down  in 
the  right  places.  Under  the  first  —  over 
the  second  —  under  the  third  —  over  the 
fourth,"  and  so  she  went  on  as  the  point 
of  the  needle  appeared  and  disappeared 
among  the  threads.  Then  she  would  make 
a  mistake  on  purpose  and  bring  the  point 
of  the  needle  up  in  the  wrong  place,  so  as 
to  take  up  two  threads  instead  of  one,  and 
would  say,  "  Ah,  you  little  Rogue,  what  are 
you  coming  up  there  for  ?  That  is  not 
right.  Go  back,  you  little  Rogue,  and  come 
up  right ! " 

In  this  way  Luly's  imagination  was  en- 
tertained, and  her  interest  in  watching  the 
progress  of  the  needle  was  greatly  in- 
creased, and  the  proper  way  of  managing 
it  was  fixed  strongly  in  her  mind;  and 
when  she  went  to  work  herself,  she  con- 
ceived of  the  needle  as  a  living  thing,  and 
talked  to  it  just  as  Mary  had  done. 

Another  thing  that  Mary  did  I  think 
was  very  wise,  and  that  is,  she  did  not 


100        MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 

find  fault  with  Luly  for  making  mistakes. 
She  did  not  even  point  out  the  mis- 
takes when  Luly  made  them,  but  let  them 
go,  and  only  showed  her  when  it  was  done 
right.  Some  people  think  that  you  must 
necessarily  tell  children  when  they  have 
done  anything  the  wrong  way,  or  else  they 
can  never  learn  the  right  way ;  and  this  is 
true  no  doubt  in  some  cases.  But  it  is  not 
generally  true,  —  for  if  you  say  nothing 
about  the  places  where  they  have  done  the 
work  wrong,  but  only  show  them  where 
they  have  done  it  right,  this  will  lead  them 
on  into  the  right  ways,  and  the  wrong  ways 
will  of  course  be  left  behind,  and  so  pass 
out  of  mind  and  be  forgotten. 

One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the 
success  of  older  children  in  teaching  their 
younger  brothers  or  sisters  is  their  discour- 
aging them  by  pointing  out  too  particularly 
the  errors  and  imperfections  of  what  they 
do,  when  they  have  tried  to  do  as  well  as 
they  could.  If  children  do  not  try  to  do 
as  well  as  they  can,  or  if  they  wilfully  or 
intentionally  do  what  is  wrong,  then  cer- 
tainly they  are  to  be  censured  or  even  pun- 
ished. But  when  they  have  done  as  well 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.  101 

as  they  can,  and  the  faults  and  errors  that 
they  have  fallen  into  only  arise  from  their 
ignorance  or  inexperience,  or  their  want  of 
practice  and  skill,  then  the  less  we  call 
their  attention  to  their  faults  and  failures 
the  better. 

There  were  once  two  cousins  named 
Susan  and  Jane,  each  of  whom  had  a  little 
sister  whom  she  called  Tottie.  Each  of 
them  undertook  to  teach  her  sister  to  sew. 
Both  were  very  kind  and  considerate,  and 
were  very  gentle  in  their  management,  but 
Susan  went  on  the  principle  of  pointing 
out  her  Tottie's  faults  and  mistakes,  in 
order  that  she  might  avoid  them  the  next 
time,  while  Jane's  plan  was  to  let  the,  faults 
and  mistakes  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble, and  lead  her  scholar  on  into  the  right 
way,  by  just  showing  her  how  far  she  was 
right  already,  and  explaining  the  right  way 
for  what  came  next. 

Each  began  by  giving  to  her  sister  two 
pieces  of  cloth  to  sew  together,  and  both 
the  children  succeeded  very  well,  consid- 
ering that  it  was  the  first  time  they  had 
attempted  to  use  a  needle. 

When  Susan's  sister  came  to  show  hei 


102        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

the  work  which  she  had  done,  Susan  took 
it  and  looked  at  it,  and  seemed  not  quite 
satisfied  with  it,  though  she  determined  not 
to  say  anything  to  hurt  little  Tottie's  feel- 
ings. So  she  said, — 

"  Well,  Tottie,  this  is  pretty  well,  consid- 
ering ;  but  you  ought  to  make  the  stitches 
nearer  together  and  make  them  all  alike. 
See  T  these  stitches  are  too  far  apart,  and 
too  coarse.  And  these  too.  These  are  very 
coarse  indeed.  You  must  take  smaller 
stitches  and  make  them  closer  together. 
See.  I  '11  show  you  how." 

So  Susan  took  the  work  and  made  some 
fine  stitches  as  a  pattern,  making  them  as 
fine  and  as  close  together  as  she  could, — 
altogether  too  much  so  for  Tottie  to  have 
any  reasonable  hope  of  being  able  to  imi- 
tate them. 

When  Susan  gave  Tottie  her  work  again 
she  went  away  with  it,  and  threw  it  down 
upon  the  sofa,  saying  she  did  not  want  to 
sew  any  more.  And  the  next  day,  when 
Susan  proposed  to  her  to  take  another  les- 
son, she  said  that  she  could  not  sew,  and  it 
was  of  no  use  to  try. 

But  Jane,  when  her  sister  brought  hei 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.  103 

the  work  which  she  had  done,  although  it 
was  not  done  any  better  than  the  oth- 
er, seemed  entirely  satisfied  with  it.  She 
was  really  satisfied  with  it,  for  it  was  a 
very  good  first  attempt  —  very  good  in- 
deed. 

"Ah,  yes,"  said  she;  "you  have  sewed 
the  pieces  together  the  very  first  time. 
See,"  said  she,  "  see  how  tight  together 
they  are." 

So  saying,  she  tried  gently  to  pull  the 
'two  pieces  apart,  to  show  Tottie  that  she 
had  actually  sewed  them  together. 

"  The  pieces  were  separate  before,  and 
you  have  sewed  them  together  pretty 
strong,  and  made  a  seam.  You  made  a 
seam  the  very  first  time.  I  should  not 
wonder  if  you  had  even  made  some  pretty 
good  stitches.  Let  us  see." 

So  Jane  began  to  examine  the  work  to 
find  good  stitches,  and,  selecting  the  best, 
she  showed  them  to  Tottie. 

"  There,"  said  she,  "  the  next  time  very 
likely  you  will  make  almost  all  the  stitches 
as  good  as  these.  To-morrow  I  will  give 
you  two  more  pieces,  and  let  you  try 


104        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  Give  them  to  me  now,"  said  the  child 
"  I  should  like  to  sew  some  more  now.  I 
am  not  tired." 

In  a  word,  Jane's  plan  was  to  allure  her 
pupil  onward  by  showing  and  commending 
what  was  good  ;  while  Susan's  method  was 
that  of  driving  her,  as  it  were, —  though 
very  gently  and  kindly, —  by  pointing  out 
and  censuring  what  was  bad.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  which  was  likely  to  be  the  most 
successful  way. 

One  day  when  Luly  was  going  to  put 
her  work  away,  she  said^she  wished  that 
she  had  a  box  or  something  to  keep  her 
things  in,  —  her  needle,  her  little  ball  of 
yarn,  and  the  work  that  she  was  doing. 
Mary  thought  that  this  would  be  a  very 
good  plan,  and  she  went  to  ask  her  mother 
to  give  her  a  box. 

"  Yes,"  said  her  mother,  "  I  will  give  you 
a  box.  You  may  go  up-stairs  and  look  in 
the  box-drawer  and  see  if  you  can  find  one 
there  that  you  think  will  do." 

The  box-drawer,  so  called,  was  a  pretty 
large  and  deep  drawer  in  the  lower  part  of 
a  kind  of  wardrobe  or  clothes-press  which 
stood  in  a  wide  passage-way  up-stairs,  and 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.  105 

was  used  for  containing  linen,  blankets, 
and  the  like.  The  press  had  shelves  and 
doors  above  and  drawers  below.  One  of 
these  drawers  was  used  as  a  place  of  stor- 
age for  paper  and  pasteboard  boxes  of  all 
kinds. 

People  often  receive  such  boxes;  they 
come  in  various  ways  into  a  house,  and 
usually  are  knocked  about  till  they  get 
broken  up  and  destroyed.  But  Mary's 
mother  had  this  drawer  to  put  them  in, 
and  thus  carefully  preserved  them,  so  that 
if  at  any  time  she  wished  for  a  box  of  any 
kind,  she  had  only  to  go  to  this  drawer, 
and  she  was  almost  sure  to  find  there  very 
nearly  what  she  required. 

So  the  children  went  up  on  this  occasion 
to  the  box-drawer,  and  on  opening  it  they 
saw  a  great  variety  of  boxes  within.  On 
one  side  were  some  very  large  ones,  placed 
one  within  the  other  to  save  space,  —  thus 
forming  what  is  called  a  nest  of  boxes. 
There  were  some  round  boxes  and  some 
square  ones,  and  some  that  were  very  small, 
such  as  pill-boxes  that  had  come  from  the 
apothecary's,  and  several  little  square  ones 
that  had  contained  articles  of  jewelry  or 


106        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

other  small  objects  of  value.  There  was 
one  quite  long  and  narrow  one  which  had 
contained  a  small  gold  pencil-case  that 
John  had  sent  to  his  cousin  Mary  as  a 
present  on  her  birthday. 

The  children  looked  over  the  assortment 
of  boxes,  and  finally  chose  one  which  had 
formerly  contained  Rochelle  powders,  or 
something  of  that  kind.  Luly  was  at  first 
inclined  to  take  a  much  larger  one,  but 
Mary  told  her  that  one  just  large  enough 
to  contain  her  work  would  be  most  con- 
venient. 

One  of  the  corners  of  the  cover  of  this 
box  was  broken  open.  Paper  boxes  are 
very  apt  to  break  in  this  way  unless  they  are 
properly  strengthened  with  cloth.  Some- 
times people  sew  the  corners,  but  that  is 
not  a  good  way  to  mend  them.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  not  a  strong  mending,  for  the 
stitches  are  likely  to  tear  out  again  pretty 
easily ;  and  then,  besides,  it  does  not  look 
well.  Even  if  you  cover  the  place  with 
paper  pasted  over,  to  conceal  the  stitches, 
they  are  very  likely  to  show  through. 

Thus  this  mode  of  mending  is  neither 
strong  nor  pretty,  and  of  course  is  not 


THE  ART  OF  TEACHING.  107 

to  be  recommended.  The  children,  under 
John's  guidance  and  direction,  adopted  a 
much  better  method  for  repairing  and  im- 
proving the  box  which  Luly  chose. 

What  this  method  was  will  be  explained 
in  the  next  chapter. 


108        MARY  GAY'S   WORK   IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTER   XL 

PASTE,    GUM,    AND    GLUE. 

BEFORE  describing  the  plan  adopted  by 
John  and  Mary,  in  fitting  up  Lilly's  box. 
I  must  make  some  scientific  explanations 
which  those  children  who  do  not  care  about 
learning  anything,  but  only  read  books  for 
the  sake  of  being  amused  for  the  time 
being,  might  as  well  skip  perhaps.  If  they 
do  not  skip  it,  however,  but  read  it  atten- 
tively, it  will  teach  them  some  things  that 
will  be  a  great  help  to  them  when  they  are 
making  anything  of  paper  or  pasteboard, 
as  for  example  when  they  are  mending 
boxes  or  making  kites. 

There  are  three  quite  different  substances 
which  are  used  to  produce  adhesion,  that  is 
to  make  things  adhere,  or  stick  together,  in 
working  in  paper,  pasteboard,  and  such 
things,  —  namely,  paste,  gum,  and  glue. 
Paste  is  the  easiest  to  use,  but  glue  sticks 


PASTE,  GUM,  AND  GLUE.  109 

the  best,  and  gum  comes  half-way  between 
the  other  two  in  both  respects. 

First,  paste  is  the  easiest  to  use.  It  is 
very  cheap,  being  made  of  flour,  which  is 
always  at  hand,  and  can  be  put  on  with  a 
big  brush  over  a  great  surface  very  fast. 
So  people  always  use  paste  when  a  great 
deal  of  work  is  to  be  done,  as  for  instance 
making  a  kite,  or  covering  a  large  box,  or 
papering  a  room. 

Nobody  would  ever  think  of  papering  a 
room  by  means  of  gum  ;  because,  in  the  first 
place,  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  put  on 
such  a  large  quantity  of  gum  smoothly  and 
evenly;  and  then,  in  the  next  place,  it  would 
cost  so  much,  on  account  of  the  gum  being 
so  much  more  expensive  than  the  flour. 

But  if  you  wish  only  to  fasten  some  small 
thing,  as  for  instance  to  seal  a  letter,  or  to 
fasten  a  picture  by  the  corners  into  a  scrap- 
book,  then  gum  is  very  good.  It  holds  a 
great  deal  better  than  paste  for  such  small 
things,  and  for  small  quantities  the  cost 
does  not  amount  to  anything  worth  con- 
sidering. 

Gum  must,  however,  be  very  thick  to 
hold  well.  If  it  is  thin,  it  will  scarcely 


110        MART  GAY'S  WORK  IX  WINTER. 

hold  at  all,  unless  the  two  things  that  are 
to  be  gummed  together  are  put  into  some 
kind  of  press  and  kept  pressed  together 
very  tight  until  the  gum  is  entirely  dry. 

Gum  holds  better  than  paste,  but  glue 
holds  very  much  better  than  gum.  Thus 
glue  is  used  to  unite  two  pieces  of  wood 
together,  and  if  the  work  is  done  properly, 
when  you  attempt  to  pull  the  two  pieces 
apart  by  great  force,  the  fibres  of  the  wood 
itself  will  be  torn  apart,  along  the  sides 
of  the  place  where  it  was  glued,  rather 
than  the  glue  itself  give  way. 

But  then  glue>  though  it  holds  so  well,  is 
somewhat  troublesome  to  use,  unless  you 
have  the  proper  conveniences  for  it.  In 
the  first  place  it  must  be  used  hot.  Gum 
can  be  dissolved  in  cold  water,  —  and  when 
it  is  intended  to  be  kept  on  hand  it  always 
ought  to  be  dissolved  in  cold  water, — which 
can  be  done  by  putting  it  into  a  bottle  and 
pouring  in  enough  cold  water  to  cover  it, 
the  day  before  you  wish  to  use  it. 

But  if  you  put  glue  into  cold  water  in 
this  way,  it  will  only  swell  and  form  a  sort 
of  stiff  jelly.  If,  then,  you  heat  this  jelly, 
it  becomes  liquid,  and  in  that  state  can 
be  used. 


PASTE,  GUM,  AND  GLUE.  Ill 

But  it  must  be  used  while  it  is  hot;  for 
if  you  let  it  get  cool,  either  in  the  vessel 
that  you  dissolve  it  in,  or  on  th^  work  be- 
fore you  put  the  parts  together,  it  turns  intc 
a  jelly  again,  and  so  will  not  hold  at  all 
To  make  glue  hold  well  it  must  be  hot 
when  it  is  put  on,  and  then  the  parts  of  the 
work  must  be  put  together  while  it  remains 
hot,  and  held  tight  together  until  it  has 
time  to  get  dry,  or  at  least  to  cool  and 
consolidate  firmly.  All  this  requires  so 
much  care  and  attention  that  it  is  much 
more  difficult  to  use  glue  than  to  use  gum 
or  paste. 

Mary  and  Luly  did  not  understand  these 
things  very  well,  but  John  understood  them, 
and  so  they  determined  to  wait  until  he 
could  help  them  before  they  undertook  to 
mend  Luly's  box.  Accordingly  one  day 
about  midwinter,  when  they  were  at  their 
aunt's,  they  asked  John  to  come  the  next 
Saturday  afternoon  and  help  them  repair 
the  box  and  cover  it  anew,  and  he  said  he 
would. 

"  And  bring  some  glue  with  you,"  sard 
Mary. 

"  Very  well,"  said  John. 


112         MART  GAY'S  WORK  IN   WINTER. 

"  And  some  pretty  paper  to  cover  the  box 
with,"  said  Luly. 

"  Very  well,"  said  John. 

"  And  a  picture  for  the  top,"  added  Luly. 

"  Very  well,"  said  John.  "  I  will  bring 
all  that  is  necessary.  But  how  big  is  the 
box  ?  " 

"  So  big,"  said  Luly,  measuring  with  her 
hands. 

"  Very  well,"  said  John. 

When  Saturday  came  it  brought  with  it 
a  great  snow-storm.  The  storm  began  in 
the  morning,  and  by  noon  the  roads  were 
so  blocked  up  that  Mary  and  Luly  thought 
that  John  would  not  come.  When  the 
time  drew  near  they  went  to  the  window 
to  look  out  for  him  ;  but  the  air  was  so 
thick  with  the  driving  snow,  and  the  glass 
of  the  window  was  so  obscured  by  the 
flakes  which  struck  upon  them  outside,  and 
were  melted  and  made  to  trickle  down  by 
the  heat  from  within,  that  scarcely  anything 
could  be  seen. 

At  one  time  they  heard  sleigh-bells,  and 
they  thought  that  John  was  coming  in  the 
sleigh.  So  they  ran  to  the  window  to  see. 
The  sound  of  the  bells  stopped  as  soon  aa 


PASTE,  GUM,  AND  GLUE.  113 

they  reached  the  window,  and  on  looking 
out  they  saw  that  it  was  a  strange  sleigh 
drawn  by  two  horses,  that  was  going  by,  and 
that  the  horses  had  got  into  a  deep  drift, — 
so  deep  that  they  could  not  get  along. 

The  sleigh  was  loaded  with  boxes  and 
bags,  and  a  man  with  a  fur  cap  and  a  red 
comforter  about  his  neck  was  sitting  upon 
the  top  of  the  bags,  driving.  When  the 
children  first  came  to  the  window  he  was 
just  preparing  to  get  down  from  his  seat  to 
help  his  horses. 

When  he  slipped  down  off  the  sleigh  he 
sank  into  the  snow  up  far  above  his  knees. 
He  then  went  wallowing  along  till  he  had 
got  before  his  horses,  and  there  began  tram- 
pling down  the  snow  along  the  road  to  make 
a  way  for  them.  When  he  had  broken 
through  the  drift  in  this  way,  he  went  back 
and  took  his  seat  on  the  bags  again,  and 
his  horses  went  on.  They  moved  slowly 
and  apparently  with  great  difficulty,  but 
were  soon  out  of  sight  and  hearing. 

The  children  then  went  away  from  the 
window,  but  not  long  afterward  their  atten- 
tion was  attracted  by  the  sound  of  a  great 
stamping  of  feet  on  the  piazza. 


114         MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  There  is  John,"  said  Mary,  running  to 
the  window. 

True  enough.  It  was  John  ;  he  was 
shaking  and  brushing  the  snow  off  from  his 
cap  and  clothes,  and  stamping  it  from  his 
boots.  Pretty  soon  he  opened  the  door  and 
came  into  the  entry.  Then  he  opened  the 
inner  door,  but  instead  of  coming  in  he 
reached  in  his  hand  with  a  roll  in  it  and 
said,  — 

"  Take  this  roll  and  bring  me  a  clothes- 
brush  as  quick  as  you  can." 

He  then  immediately  shut  the  door  again  ; 
and  when  Mary  brought  him  the  clothes- 
brush  he  opened  the  door  just  wide  enough 
to  receive  it,  and  then  went  back  out  upon 
the  piazza. 

The  reason  why  he  did  this  was  to  keep 
the  snow  cold  and  dry,  so  that  he  might 
brush  it  off  easily,  instead  of  coming  with 
it  into  a  warm  room,  and  letting  it  melt  and 
wet  his  clothes. 

"John,"  said  Luly,  when  he  at  length 
came  in,  "  why  did  n't  you  ride  here  in  the 
sleigh  ?  The  snow  is  too  deep  for  you  to 
walk." 

"  Hoh  !"  said  John,  "  a  big  boy  like  me 


PASTE,  GUM,  AND   GLUE.  115 

can  get  through  deep  snow  a  great  deal 
better  than  a  horse  can." 

"What  is  there  in  this  roll?"  asked 
Luly. 

"  Some  pretty  paper,"  said  John,  "  to 
cover  our  boxes." 

"  Let  me  see  it,"  said  Luly. 

"  No,"  replied  John,  "  not  till  we  have 
got  our  shop  ready.  The  first  thing  is  to 
make  our  shop." 

So  saying,  John  began  to  lead  the  way 
toward  the  kitchen.  The  kitchen  was  all 
in  nice  order,  there  was  a  good  fire  in  the 
stove,  and  Sophronia  was  seated  at  a  win- 
dow, sewing. 

"  Sophronia,"  said  John,  "  will  you  lend 
us  your  ironing-board  for  a  bench  ?  We 
are  going  to  have  a  bookbinder's  shop." 

"  Yes,"  said  Sophronia. 

So  John  and  Mary  went  out  into  a  back 
room  where  they  knew  the  ironing-board 
was  kept,  and  brought  it  in.  One  lifted  at 
one  end  and  the  other  at  the  other,  —  Luly 
running  along  by  the  side,  trying  to  help. 
When  they  had  brought  the  ironing-board 
into  the  kitchen,  John  placed  two  chairs 
facing  each  other,  and  at  a  proper  distance 


116         MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

apart,  and  then  laid  the  ironing-board  down 
upon  them,  one  end  upon  each  chair,  so  as 
to  make  a  long  low  table.  Then  he  and 
Mary  brought  three  little  benches  or  stools, 
of  the  kind  sometimes  called  crickets,  —  and 
the  shop  was  complete. 

"  Now,"  said  John,  "  I.  will  unroll  my 
roll  of  paper,  and  let  you  see  what  I  have 
got." 

So  John  unrolled  the  roll,  and  brought  to 
view  a  number  of  sheets  of  paper  of  various 
colors,  and  of  different  shapes  and  sizes. 
They  were  of  the  kind  called  fancy  papers, 
being  ornamented  with  pretty  patterns  of 
various  kinds.  One  sheet  was  entirely  red, 
of  a  very  bright  and  pretty  hue. 

There  was  a  small  sheet  of  gilt  paper, 
and  several  colored  pictures,  not  quite  so 
large  as  the  top  of  Luly's  box. 

All  these  sheets  came  out  very  smooth, 
being  not  at  all  tumbled,  for  they  had  been 
rolled  upon  a  round  stick,  —  part  of  a  broom- 
handle  which  John  had  sawed  off  for  the 
purpose.  By  rolling  his  fancy  paper  and 
pictures  upon  this  round  bar,  he  had  effect 
ually  prevented  them  from  getting  crushed 
and  the  paper  broken,  in  the  rough  hand- 


TASTE,  GUM,  AND  GLUE.  117 

ling  which  the  roll  would  be  likely  to  get 
in  being  brought  so  far  in  his  hand,  through 
a  driving  snow-storm. 

"  Now,  Mary,"  said  John,  "  have  you  got 
a  glue-pot  in  the  house  ?" 

"  No,"  replied  Mary,  "  but  I  have  got  a 
gum-bottle." 

"  Well,  bring  your  gum-bottle,"  said  John. 
"  But  we  shall  need  a  glue-pot  too.  I  must 
make  a  glue-pot." 

«  Won't  a  little  cup  do  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  A  cup  will  do  for  part  of  it,"  said  John ; 
"  but  there  must  be  something  else  besides. 
It  must  be  double,  —  glue-pots  are  always 
double." 


118         MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ABOUT    HOT    WATER. 

WHAT  John  meant  by  saying  that  glue- 
pots  were  always  double  was  this,  that  they 
always  consist  of  two  vessels,  one  of  which 
is  set  within  the  other.  The  inner  one  con- 
tains the  glue,  and  the  outer  one  water, 
which  serves  to  prevent  the  glue  from  burn- 
ing when  it  is  over  the  fire. 

The  reason  why  the  water  in  the  outer 
vessel  prevents  the  glue  from  burning  is, 
that  only  a  certain  quantity  of  heat  can 
pass  through  water,  and  that  is  not  enough 
to  burn  glue,  or  candy,  or  sugar,  or  anything 
else  of  that  kind  that  is  put  over  the  fire. 
Accordingly,  if  you  wish  to  keep  anything 
from  the  possibility  of  burning  when  you 
are  boiling  it  over  a  fire,  you  have  only  so 
to  arrange  it  as  to  have  a  stratum  of  water 
between  it  and  the  fire. 

This  is  done  in  the  case  of  glue  by  hav- 
ing the  vessel  double.  The  inner  one  con- 


ABOUT  HOT   WATER.  119 

tains  the  glue.  The  outer  one  is  filled  with 
water  ;  and  thus  there  is  a  stratum  of  water 
between  the  melted  glue  and  the  fire,  which 
prevents  the  glue  from  ever  becoming  too 
hot,  however  hot  the  fire  may  be. 

Water  will  keep  anything  from  becoming 
hot  above  a  certain  degree,  however  hot  the 
fire  may  be  under  it.  If  for  example  you 
should  put  some  lead  into  a  kettle  or  a 
skillet  that  had  water  in  it,  and  then  put 
the  skillet  over  the  hottest  possible  fire,  you 
could  not  melt  the  lead  in  the  water,  —  for 
the  lead  could  not  get  hotter  than  the  water 
was  that  was  around  it,  and  that  would 
not  be  hot  enough  to  melt  the  lead. 

The  greatest  heat  that  water  can  ever 
have  in  ordinary  cases  is  two  hundred  and 
twelve  degrees  by  the  thermometer.  But 
lead  will  not  melt  until  it  becomes  as  hot 
as  six  hundred  and  twelve  degrees. 

There  is  a  very  curious  reason  why  water 
will  not  become  hotter  than  two  hundred 
and  twelve,  or  rather  a  very  curious  oper- 
ation takes  place  which  prevents  it.  It  is 
this.  Suppose  a  kettle  with  cold  water  in 
it  is  put  over  a  hot  fire.  The  heat  from  the 
fire  immediately  begins  to  go  into  the  iron 


120          MARY  GAT'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

which  forms  the  bottom  of  the  kettle,  and 
through  the  iron  up  into  the  water  above. 
The  water  begins  to  grow  first  warm  and 
then  warmer.  When  it  gets  as  high  as  one 
hundred  by  the  thermometer,  it  would  feel 
quite  warm  to  your  hand,  but  not  hot. 
When  it  gets  to  one  hundred  and  fifty,  it 
would  be  scalding  hot ;  and  when  it  reached 
to  just  about  two  hundred  and  twelve,  it 
would  be  as  hot  as  it  could  be.  No  matter 
how  hot  the  fire  was  under  it,  or  how  long 
the  heat  should  be  continued,  the  water 
would  never  become  any  hotter  than  two 
hundred  and  twelve  degrees.* 

And  yet  all  the  time  the  heat  would  be 
going  up  from  the  fire  through  the  bottom 
of  the  kettle  into  the  water.  What  then  can 
be  the  reason  that  the  water  does  not  get  any 
hotter  ?  Where  does  all  the  heat  go  to  ? 

It  goes  to  making  steam,  and  the  steam 
goes  off  up  the  chimney,  carrying  the  heat 
with  it. 

The  way  it  operates  is  this.  As  fast  as 
any  portion  of  the  bottom  of  the  kettle  gets 
above  the  heat  of  212°,*  the  water  that 

*  The  usual  way  of  expressing  the  degrees  of  the  thermom- 
eter is  by  putting  the  little  figure0  after  the  number.  This 
figure  means  degrees.  Thus  212°  means  212  degrees. 


ABOUT   HOT   WATER.  121 

touches  it  is  turned  into  steam,  and  in 
turning  takes  up  a  great  deal  of  heat,  for 
steam  has  the  power  of  taking  up  a  great 
deal  more  heat  than  water. 

The  steam  when  it  is  formed,  being  a 
great  deal  lighter  than  water,  rises  in  a 
bubble  up  to  the  top,  and  then  breaks  out 
and  goes  up  the  chimney,  carrying  the  heat 
up  with  it.  This  process  goes  on  all  the 
time,  and  of  course  prevents  the  bottom  of 
the  kettle  from  ever  becoming  much  hotter 
than  212°. 

This  is  the  reason  why  water  will  put 
out  fire.  It  takes  all  the  heat  out  of  the 
fire  by  changing  itself  into  steam,  and  car- 
rying the  heat  off  up  into  the  air,  and  then 
of  course  the  fire  goes  out. 

When  a  house  is  on  fire  and  the  engines 
come  and  pour  on  water,  the  heat  of  the 
fire  is  all  taken  off  into  the  water  and  car 
ried  up  in  the  air  in  steam,  and  there  floats 
away  among  the  clouds. 

There  is  a  possible  way  of  making  water 
hotter  than  212°,  but  not  by  putting  it  in 
an  open  vessel  over  a  hot  fire,  or  pouring  it 
upon  burning  coals.  The  way  is  to  shut  it 
up  in  a  very  tight  and  strong  vessel,  so  that 


122         MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

no  steam  can  get  out  to  carry  away  the 
heat  If  the  water  is  open  and  free,  then 
as  soon  as  it  gets  to  212°  the  steam  will 
form  and  carry  away  the  heat  as  fast  as  it 
comes  in,  and  the  water  will  never  get  any 
hotter. 

When  people  wish  to  make  water  hotter 
than  212°,  as  the  philosophers  do  some- 
times in  making  their  experiments,  it  is 
necessary  to  make  the  vessel  that  they  shut 
it  up  in  very  tight  and  strong  indeed,  or 
else  they  will  not  succeed.  It  must  be  very 
tight,  for  the  smallest  crevice  is  sufficient 
to  let  the  steam  escape  and  carry  off  the 
heat.  And  if  it  is  made  perfectly  tight  it 
must  then  be  made  very  strong,  or  the 
stearn  will  burst  it  open,  in  order  to  make 
its  escape. 

When  a  tea-kettle  is  on  the  fire,  and  is 
boiling,  the  steam  that  carries  off  the  heat 
gets  out,  some  of  it  through  the  nose  of  the 
kettle,  and  the  rest  through  the  small  crack 
around  and  under  the  cover. 

It  follows  from  this  circumstance,  namely, 
that  water  when  open  and  free  can  never 
be  made  hotter  than  212°,  that  nothing  — 
at  least  no  common  substance  —  can  burn 


ABOUT  HOT   WATER.  123 

when  there  is  water  around  it,  —  between 
it  and  the  fire,  —  no  matter  how  hot  the 
fire  may  be.  For  no  common  substance 
can  burn  until  it  gets  hotter  than  212°  ; 
and  no  heat  greater  than  that  can  be  made 
to  pass  through  the  water. 

Accordingly,  to  make  a  glue-pot  that  shall 
always  be  safe,  even  when  the  carpenter 
places  it  on  a  hot  stove,  and  goes  away  and 
leaves  it  there  for  a  long  time,  while  he  is 
at  work  on  something  else,  they  put  the 
glue  in  one  vessel,  and  then  sefr  this  vessel 
in  another  which  is  partly  filled  with  water. 
Thus  the  water  rises  all  around  the  vessel 
that  holds  the  glue,  and  keeps  it  from  ever 
getting  above  212°. 

But  if  the  carpenter  forgets  his  glue  en- 
tirely, and  leaves  it  on  the  hot  stove  too 
long,  so  that  all  the  water  in  the  outer 
vessel  has  time  to  boil  away,  then  the  pro- 
tection for  the  glue  is  gone,  the  heat  comes 
up  through  both  vessels,  and  the  glue  soon 
begins  to  burn. 

Once  I  knew  a  boy,  whom  I  will  call 
Samuel,  that  bought  a  little  glue-pot  made 
of  tin.  There  was  an  inner  vessel  for  the 
glue,  and  an  outer  one  for  the  water,  and 
they  fitted  very  nicely  together. 


124         MARY  GAY'S  WORK   IN  WINTER. 

Both  vessels  were  soldered,  as  tin  things 
usually  are,  with  a  kind  of  solder  which 
melts  at  about  360°  of  the  thermometer. 
This  you  see  is  much  hotter  than  the  hot- 
test water,  but  not  nearly  so  hot  as  the 
melting  of  lead,  which  is  612°. 

Of  course  so  long  as  any  vessel  the  joints 
of  which  are  formed  of  a  solder  that  melts 
at  360°,  has  water  in  it,  the  joints  will  not 
melt,  no  matter  how  hot  the  fire  is  that  is 
under  it. 

Samuel's  glue-pot  was  accordingly  as 
good  as  any  for  the  use  intended,  so  long  as 
he  took  pains  to  keep  water. in  the  outer 
vessel.  But  one  day,  when  he  had  set  his 
glue-pot  on  the  stove  in  order  to  melt  some 
glue  for  certain  work  that  he  was  going  to 
do,  he  thought  he  would  go  out  and  slide 
a  little  while  it  was  melting.  There  was 
nobody  in  the  kitchen  at  the  time,  for  it 
was  the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  the 
girl  had  gone  away.  He  took  care,  how- 
ever, to  fill  the  outside  vessel  full  of  water, 
which  he  thought  made  it  all  safe.  % 

It  was  safe  in  fact  for  an  hour  or  two, 
but  Samuel  found  a  number  of  other  boys 
at  the  slid  ing-place,  and  he  became  so  much 


ABOUT  HOT  WATER.  125 

interested  in  sliding  that  he  stayed  out 
longer  than  he  expected,  and  when  he  came 
in  and  opened  the  kitchen-door,  he  found 
the  room  full  of  smoke,  — a  kind  of  smoke, 
moreover,  which  had  a  most  horrible  smell. 
He  ran  to  the  stove,  and  there  he  found  his 
glue-pot  all  in  ruins  on  the  stove,  and  the 
parts  of  it  lying  in  the  midst  of  a  black 
mass,  like  pitch,  hissing  and  bubbling,  and 
sending  up  fresh  volumes  of  smoke  as  it 
burnt  away. 

The  truth  was  that  the  water  in  the  outer 
vessel  remained  faithful,  and  protected  the 
glue,  until  it  was  all  expended  in  carrying 
off  the  heat  by  changing  it  into  steam,  in 
other  words,  until  it  had  all  boiled  away. 
Then  when  it  was  all  gone,  the  heat  com- 
ing up  from  the  stove  had  now  nothing  to 
oppose  it.  It  first  melted  away  the  solder 
from  the  outer  vessel,  and  made  it  fall  to 
pieces.  The  inner  vessel  with  the  glue  in 
it  then  fell  down  upon  the  hot  iron,  and  the 
solder  of  that  was  soon  melted  too ;  then 
all  the  glue  ran  down  over  the  tin  pieces, 
and  upon  the  stove,  and  began  to  burn,  and 
things  were  in  this  condition  when  Samuel 
came  in. 


126         MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IX  WINTER. 

Glue-pots  are  generally  made  of  copper 
or  of  iron,  without  any  solder,  so  that  if 
at  any  time  the  water  gets  out,  the  worst 
that  can  happen  is  that  the  glue  gets  burnt 
to  a  cinder,  and  you  then  have  the  trouble 
of  scraping  it  all  out  before  you  can  use 
the  glue-pot  again  ;  but  the  glue-pot  itself 
is  safe. 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  glue-pots  and 
glue,  —  a  philosophy  which  all  children, 
girls  as  well  as  boys,  ought  to  understand. 
You  must  try  to  remember  too  at  what 
degree  of  the  thermometer  water  boils,  and 
also  at  what  degree  lead  melts,  though  this 
last  is  not  so  important.  It  is  very  im- 
portant to  remember  at  what  degree  water 
boils,  and  also  at  what  degree  it  freezes 
It  freezes  at  32 ;  and  that  is  also  the  degree 
at  which  ice  or  snow  melts :  that  is,  when 
the  weather  is  cold  and  is  growing  warmer 
the  ice  begins  to  melt  when  the  mercury 
in  the  thermometer  passes  32°  in  going  up; 
and  when  the  weather  is  warm  and  is 
growing  colder,  ice  begins  to  form  when 
the  mercury  passes  32°  in  going  down. 

Thus  32°  is  the  freezing,  and  212°  the 
boiling  point  of  water.  Try  to  remember 
both  of  them. 


THE  BOXES.  127 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    BOXES. 

AFTER  looking  about  for  some  little  time 
in  the  kitchen-closets,  Mary  and  John  found 
a  small  mug,  of  brown  ware,  and  also  an 
old  tea-cup  without  a  handle,  of  just  such  a 
size,  relatively  to  each  other,  that  the  cup 
would  set  in  the  top  of  the  mug,  and  go 
down  into  it  so  low  that  only  the  rim  of  it 
was  above  the  rim  of  the  mug. 

When  it  was  in  this  position  there  was 
of  course  a  considerable  space  beneath  the 
cup,  and  around  the  sides  of  it,  within  the 
mug,  for  holding  water  which  was  to  keep 
the  glue  from  burning,  while  the  glue  itself, 
and  the  water  in  which  it  was  to  be  dis- 
solved, could  be  put  in  the  cup. 

"  There  !"  said  John.  "  That  is  just  what 
we  want  for  a  glue-pot,  —  the  cup  to  hold 
the  glue,  and  the  mug  to  hold  the  water 
around  it,  —  if  auntie  will  onlv  let  us  have 
these  things." 


128        MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN7   WINTER. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Mary.  "  She  will  let  us 
have  them,  I  am  sure." 

"  You  must  go  and  ask  her,"  said  John. 
"  The  best  rale  is  not  to  begin  to  use  any- 
thing till  we  are  sure  we  have  a  right 
to  it." 

So  Mary  went  into  the  parlor,  and  soon 
returned  and  reported  that  her  mother  said 
she  would  give  them  the  cup  and  the  mug 
to  do  anything  they  pleased  with  them. 

Mary  also  brought  out 'her  gum-bottle; 
but  it  was  not  in  very  good  condition; 
the  mouth  of  it  was  so  incrusted  with 
gum  which  had  dried  on,  that  the  cork 
would  not  go  in  very  well ;  and  the  brush, 
which  was  fastened  to  the  cork  so  as  to  go 
down  from  it  on  the  under  side  into  the 
bottle,  did  not  reach  quite  to  the  gum,  and 
so  was  dry  and  hard. 

"  Now,"  said  John,  "  the  first  thing  is  to 
put  the  glue  on  the  fire,  and  the  next  thing 
will  be  to  put  your  gum-bottle  in  good  con- 
dition." 

In  order  that  the  glue  might  dissolve 
quick,  it  was  necessary  that  it  should  be 
broken  in  pieces;  and  in  order  to  prevent 
the  pieces  from  flying  about  under  the  ham- 


THE  BOXES.  129 

mer,  John  wrapped  the  glue  first  up  loosely 
in  a  paper,  and  then  struck  it  with  the 
hammer  through  the  paper. 

"Why  did  not  you  take  the  mortar?" 
asked  Mary. 

"Ah,"  said  John,  «  I  did  not  think  of  the 
mortar.  That  would  have  been  better ;  but 
this  way  will  do." 

He  put  the  small  fragments  of  glue  in 
the  cup,  and  then  poured  some  hot  water 
over  them  from  the  tea-kettle.  Then  he 
filled  the  mug  two-thirds  full  of  water,  and 
set  the  cup  in  its  place  in  the  top  of  it,  and 
finally  set  the  whole  upon  the  stove  to  keep 
it  hot  until  it  should  be  dissolved. 

While  the  glue  was  dissolving,  John  put 
the  gum-bottle  in  order.  He  took  out  the 
cork,  separated  the  brush  from  it,  put  both 
into  a  basin  of  warm  water  to  soak,  and 
then  with  his  knife  peeled  off  all  the  dried 
and  indurated  gum  from  around  the  mouth 
of  the  bottle,  both  inside  and  outside, 
and  put  what  he  thus  obtained  down  into 
the  bottle,  where  it  might  be  dissolved 
again. 

"  And  now,"  said  he,  "  I  must  put  in  a 
little  more  water  to  make  your  gum  thinner. 

9 


130         MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 

Generally,  the  gum  in  bottles  is  too  thin, 
but  yours  is  too  thick." 

Mary's  gum  was  very  thick  indeed  ;  in 
fact,  it  was  almost  dried  up. 

Leaving  the  gum  and  the  glue  to  dissolve, 
and  the  brushes  to  soak,  John  now  pro- 
ceeded to  lay  out  the  work  on  the  ironing- 
board. 

"  Now,"  said  John,  "if  we  only  had  two 
boxes,  you  could  cover  one,  Mary,  while  I 
am  covering  the  other." 

«  Well,"  said  Mary,  « there  are  plenty 
more  up  in  the  box-drawer." 

"  And  one  for  me  too,"  said  Luly. 

"  Yes,"  replied  John.  "  We  will  find  one 
for  you  too." 

So  the  children  all  went  up-stairs,  and 
there  from  the  stores  in  the  box-drawer  they 
selected  two  boxes,  —  one  of  the  same  size 
with  the  one  which  had  already  been  chosen 
for  Luly's  work-box,  and  another  much 
smaller  one  for  Luly  herself  to  cover.  With 
these  boxes  in  their  hands  they  went  to 
Mrs.  Gay  to  ask  if  they  might  have  them, 
and  then  returned  to  the  kitchen,  bringing 
with  them  also  three  pairs  of  scissors,  which 
Mrs.  Gay  lent  them. 


THE  BOXES.  131 

There  were  several  other  things  that  John 
said  would  be  required  for  their  work,  and 
these  he  said  must  all  be  got  ready  before 
the  work  was  begun. 

"  It  is  a  sign  of  a  bad  workman,"  said 
he,  "  to  have  to  be  jumping  up  and  going 
away  to  get  things  that  you  want  for  your 
work,  after  you  have  begun  to  do  it.  The 
rule  is,  get  everything  ready  before  you 
begin." 

So  John  went  on  with  the  work  of  getting 
things  ready.  Mary  was  surprised  to  find 
how  many  things  were  required.  Among 
others  was  a  ruler  and  a  pencil,  three 
brushes,  a  newspaper,  —  which  John  care- 
fully divided  by  folding  it  repeatedly  and 
cutting  through  at  the  fold  with  a  paper- 
cutter,  until  he  had  divided  it  into  oblong 
pieces,  a  little  larger  than  a  side  of  the 
largest  boxes,  —  and  also  a  suucer  to  pour 
out  the  gum  into. 

Mary  also  procured  three  towels,  one  for 
each  of  the  company.  These  were  to  wipe 
their  fingers  upon,  when  they  should  acci- 
dentally get  any  gum  or  glue  upon  them. 

It  took  so  much  time  to  get  all  these 
things  ready  that  Mary  began  to  be  some- 
what impatient. 


132         MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  If  it  takes  us  so  long  to  get  ready,"  said 
she,  "  we  shall  be  forever  in  really  doing 
the  work." 

"  No,"  said  John.  "  To  be  a  good  while 
in  getting  ready  is  a  sign  that  we  shall  do 
the  work  quick  when  we  really  begin." 

At  length  all  was  ready,  and  the  children 
took  their  seats.  John  and  Mary  sat  upqn 
one  side  of  the  board,  and  Luly  on  the 
other. 

"  Now,  Luly,"  said  John,  "  all  the  ques- 
tions you  ask  me  you  must  ask  with  your 
eyes." 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  said 
Luly. 

"  Or  with  your  ears,"  said  John. 

"  I  don't  know  any  better  now  than  I  did 
before,"  said  Luly. 

"  I  mean  you  may  look  and  listen  as 
much  as  .you  please,  but  talk  very  little. 
See  what  I  do,  and  hear  what  I  say,  and 
act  accordingly." 

So  saying,  John  began  the  work,  and  went 
on  with  it  step  by  step,  explaining  what  he 
did  as  he  went  along,  and  giving  Mary  and 
Luly  the  necessary  directions  for  doing  with 
their  boxes  what  he  did  with  his.  He  first 


'•',„, 


TI1K   BOXES      P    132. 


THE  BOXES.  133 

cut  out  some  pieces  of  linen  cloth,  which 
he  had  provided  for  mending  the  corners  of 
the  boxes  where  they  had  been  broken,  and 
for  strengthening  them  where  they  were  still 
whole.  These  he  put  on  with  glue,  taking 
care  to  have  the  piece  that  was  put  on  large 
enough  to  lap  over  about  half  an  inch  each 
side  of  the  joint.  He  did  this  to  all  the 
corners  of  his  box,  both  those  of  the  cover 
and  those  of  the  box  itself. 

He  used  one  precaution,  however,  in  put- 
ting on  these  corner-strengtheners,  which  I 
advise  all  children  to  adopt  who  may  ever 
attempt  to  cover  boxes  in  this  way ;  and 
that  is,  that  in  putting  on  each  piece  he 
only  glued  it  upon  one  side  of  the  corner 
at  first,  and  waited  till  that  was  nearly  dry 
before  he  brought  it  over  and  glued  it  to 
the  other  side.  Thus  he  went  all  around 
his  box,  and  glued  a  little  piece  of  cloth 
upon  one  side  of  each  corner,  leaving  half 
of  the  cloth  free,  until  the  first  gluing  should 
be  dry.  By  the  time  that  he  had  got  round, 
the  first  one  was  ready  to  be  finished,  for 
the  cloth  was  now  quite  firm  on  one  side 
of  the  corner,  so  that  by  putting  some 
glue  with  his  brush  on  the  box  at  the  other 


134         MARY   GAY'S    WOIJK    IX    WINTER. 

side  he  could  carry  the  end  of  the  cloth 
over  and  draw  in  the  parts  to  their  places, 
and  confine  them  there  much  better,  on 
account  of  half  of  the  work  being  already 
dry  and  strong. 

There  was  another  thing  that  I  must 
mention.  He  did  not  attempt  to  cut  out 
these  corner-pieces  of  exactly  the  right  size 
before  he  put  them  on,  for  if  he  had  done 
so  it  would  have  been  necessary  for  him  to 
take  great  pains  to  get  them  on  exactly 
right,  which  is  a  troublesome  thing  to  do 
with  anything  that  is  glued.  All  he  did  in 
the  first  instance  was  to  be  sure  to  have 
the  pieces  long  enough,  and  thus  in  putting 
them  on  he  had  only  to  see  that  the  joint 
was  well  covered,  and  then  when  they  were 
dry  he  trimmed  off  the  surplus  cloth,  where 
it  projected,  with  the  scissors. 

"  There,"  said  he,  when  the  joints  of  all 
the  boxes  were  well  covered  in  this  way, 
"  now  the  boxes  are  strong.  The  corners 
won't  break  open  again,  as  they  did  be- 
fore." 

"  They  may  be  strong,"  said  Luly,  "  but 
I  don't  think  that  they  are  pretty." 

"  Ah,"  said  John,  "  they  are  not  pretty 


THE  BOXES.  135 

now,  because  they  are  not  finished.  You 
will  see  how  much  prettier  they  will  be 
when  they  are  finished." 

John  then  proceeded  to  cut  out  some 
strips  of  green  paper,  about  half  an  inch 
wide,  and  as  long  as  the  boxes.  After  he 
had  cut  out  several  of  these,  he  made  some 
more  of  red  paper,  and  finally  a  third  set, 
though  these  last  were  shorter,  of  gilt  paper. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  all 
those  little  ribbons  that  you  are  making?'' 
asked  Luly. 

"Ah,"  said  John,  "you  must  ask  your 
questions  with  your  eyes.  Wait  and  you 
will  see.  The  gilt  ribbons  are  for  you,  and 
the  green  and  red  ones  are  for  Mary  and 
me." 

"  Let  rne  have  the  green  ones,"  said 
Mary. 

"Very  well,"  said  John  ;  "you  shall  have 
the  green  ones  ;  I  will  take  the  red  ones." 

John  then  proceeded  to  gum  one  of  his 
red  strips,  laying  it  down  first,  with  the  red 
side  down,  upon  one  of  the  pieces  of  news- 
paper, which  he  had  previously  placed  in  a 
oroper  position  before  him  on  the  table. 
By  this  arrangement  the  brush,  when  it 


136        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

passed  beyond  the  edge  of  the  strip,  went 
only  upon  the  newspaper,  and  so  did  not 
soil  the  table. 

Mary  and  Luly  did  the  same  with  their 
strips. 

"  We  don't  gum  the  strip  quite  out  to 
the  ends,"  said  John.  "  We  leave  a  little 
place  to  take  hold  of." 

Then  taking  up  the  strip  by  the  two  ends 
thus  left  dry,  John  proceeded  to  lay  it  down 
along  the  angle  formed  by  the  top  of  the 
cover  of  the  box  and  the  front  side,  and 
then  to  pat  it  down  all  along  with  his 
towel. 

The  strips  had  all  been  made  a  little 
longer  than  the  boxes,  so  that,  when  they 
were  put  on,  the  ends,  which  had  not  been 
gummed,  projected  a  little.  These  ends 
John  now  trimmed  off  with  the  scissors. 

The  children  did  the  same  with  the  ends 
of  their  strips. 

John  observed  that  Luly  had  not  put  her 
strip  on  perfectly  straight.  Indeed  Luly 
perceived  it  too,  and  was  beginning  to  look 
troubled  about  it  when  John  said,  — 

"  It  is  no  matter  if  we  do  not  get  these 
strips  on  perfectly  straight.  If  the  corner 


THE  BOXES.  137 

is  covered  all  along,  that  is  all  that  is  neces- 
sary. No  matter  if  the  strip  comes  over  a 
little  farther  on  one  side  than  the  other,  for 
the  side-pieces  that  we  shall  put  on  by  and 
by  will  cover  the  edges  of  the  strip,  and 
leave  just  as  much  of  it  to  show,  along  the 
corner,  as  we  wish." 

"  Oh!"  said  Luly,  in  a  tone  of  satisfac- 
tion. 

In  the  same  manner  John  proceeded  in 
applying  the  other  strips  to  all  the  other 
corners  of  the  box.  Some  of  the  strips  re- 
quired were  very  short,  as  for  example  those 
that  went  up  and  down  ;  but  John  cut  pieces 
of  the  right  length  for  these  places,  making 
allowance  for  the  ends  that  were  not  to  be 
gummed,  in  order  that  there  might  be  dry 
places  to  take  hold  of. 

The  children  did  the  same  with  their 
boxes,  until  at  length  all  the  corner-edges 
were  covered, — John's  with  strips  of  red 
paper,  Mary's  with  green,  and  Luly's  with 
gilt.  Of  course  Luly's  strips  were  not  put 
on  very  well;  but  as  they  were  of  gilt 
paper,  they  looked  so  bright  and  gay  that 
she  was  very  much  pleased  with  them. 

After  having  covered  all  the  edges  of  the 


138          MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IN   WINTER. 

boxes  in  this  way,  John  said  they  must  now 
cut  out  pieces  to  cover  the  tops  of  the  boxes, 
and  also  the  sides  and  ends. 

"  We  are  going  to  have  pictures  for  the 
top,"  said  Mary. 

"  So  we  are,"  said  John ;  "and  we  only 
want  paper  for  the  front  and  back,  and  for 
the  ends." 

So  they  all  began  to  look  over  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  fancy  paper  which  John  had 
brought,  in  order  to  select  what  they  sever- 
ally preferred  for  their  boxes.  In  choosing 
the  papers  they  not  only  looked  for  what 
would  be  pretty  in  itself,  but  also  for  what 
would  contrast  well  with  the  s'rips  which 
they  had  put  on  along  the  edges.  When 
they  had  all  chosen  what  they  liked  best, 
they  cut  out  pieces  of  the  right  size,  and 
gummed  them  on,  John  leading  the  way 
and  showing  the  others,  step  by  step,  how 
the  work  was  to  be  done. 

Of  course  these  pieces  were  made  some- 
what smaller  each  way  than  the  side  or  end 
of  the  box  which  they  were  to  cover,  so  as 
not  to  come  quite  out  to  the  edge,  but  to 
leave  a  proper  width  of  the  binding  which 
they  had  put  on  along  the  edges,  to  show. 


THE  BOXES.  139 

The  last  thing  was  to  put  the  pictures 
upon  the  top.  The  colored  engravings 
which  John  had  brought  were  of  very  nearly 
the  right  size  for  his  box  and  for  Mary's, 
but  they  were  too  large  for  Luly's.  This, 
however,  made  but  little  difficulty. 

"  Because,"  said  John,  "  I  can  cut  one  of 
them  down." 

"  But  that  will  spoil  the  picture,"  said 
Mary. 

"  No,"  said  John.  "  It  will  cut  away  a 
part  of  it,  but  what  is  left  will  make  a 
pretty  picture  of  itself  for  Luly's  box." 

"  But  then  it  will  look  unfinished  when 
you  have  cut  it,"  said  Mary. 

"  No,"  said  John,  "  for  we  shall  put  a 
little  border  of  gilt  paper  around  the  margin 
of  every  picture,  close  to  the  color,  and  then 
they  will  all  look  like  painted  pictures  in 
gilt  frames.  Painted  pictures  almost  always 
come  out  to  the  edge  of  the  frame." 

So  they  put  the  pictures  on,  and  finally 
gummed  a  very  narrow  gilt  border  around 
each  one  of  them,  and  then  the  boxes  ap- 
peared to  be  done. 

"Now  are  they  all  finished  ?"  asked 
Luly. 


140         MARY   GAY'S    WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  All  except  drying,"  said  John.  "  They 
have  got  to  dry." 

"  But  they  will  dry  of  themselves,  won't 
they?"  asked  Mary. 

"  They  won't  dry  in  the  right  shape,  of 
themselves,"  said  John.  "  We  shall  have 
to  attend  to  that  a  little." 


ABOUT  DRYING.  141 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ABOUT    DRYING. 

THERE  is  something  curious  about  dry- 
ing that  it  is  important  that  all  children 
should  understand. 

The  drying  of  a  thing  is  only  the  going 
away  of  the  water  from  .it,  or  out  of  it. 
The  water  goes  away  into  the  air.  It 
turns  first  into  vapor  and  then  goes  away. 
The  reason  why  you  cannot  see  it  go 
away  is,  because  it  goes  away  as  vapor, 
and  vapor  is  generally  invisible. 

Sometimes  you  can  see  the  water  go 
away  into  the  air,  as,  for  example,  when  a 
tea-pot  full  of  hot  water  is  put  upon  the 
table  in  a  cold  winter  morning,  and  the 
steam  rises  from  it  in  a  visible  form. 

When  wood  or  paper  is  wet,  the  water 
soaks  into  it  and  swells  it  to  a  larger  size, 
and  makes  it  softer  than  it  was  when  it 
Was  dry. 

When  the  wet  wood  or  paper  is  left  a 


14:2    MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

long  time  in  dry  air,  the  water  from  it  goes 
away,  and  then  the  wood  or  paper  shrinks, 
so  as  to  become  smaller  than  it  was  when 
it  was  wet,  and  also  becomes  harder  and 
stiffer. 

You  can  prove  this  easily  by  experi- 
ment. Drop  a  drop  of  water  upon  a  sheet 
of  paper,  and  leave  it  so  a  few  minutes, 
and  it  will  produce  a  kind  of  blister  on  the 
paper.  This  is  because  it  swells  the  paper 
and  makes  it  bulge  out  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  It  makes  it  soft  too,  as  you  will  see 
by  pushing  your  finger  against  it,  and  ob- 
serving how  easily  you  can  break  through. 

Wood  too,  as  well  as  paper,  swells  when 
there  is  water  soaked  into  the  pores  of  it, 
and  also  becomes  softer.  When  trees  are 
growing  they  are  full  of  sap,  and  then  the 
wood  is  quite  soft  comparatively,  —  that  is, 
the  axe  will  go  into  it  much  more  easily 
than  it  will  when  the  wood  is  dry. 

If  you  were  to  go  into  the  woods  in  the 
winter,  when  the  lumber-men  are  at  work 
cutting  down  the  immense  pine-trees  that 
grow  there,  you  would  be  surprised  to  see 
how  easily  they  do  it.  You  would  think 
it  strange  to  see  how  far  the  axe  goes  in  at 


ABOUT   DRYING.  143 

every  stroke,  and  how  fast  the  large  chips 
come  out.  This  is  partly  because  the 
wood  is  full  of  sap,  which  is  almost  all 
water,  and  this  water  makes  it  compara- 
tively very  soft. 

When  the  tree  is  cut  down,  and  the 
wood  has  had  time  to  become  dry,  it  is 
much  harder  and  stiffer  than  when  it  was 
green,  that  is,  when  the  pores  were  full  of 
sap. 

They  can,  however,  soften"  it  again,  if 
they  wish  to  bend  it  for  any  purpose,  by 
filling  the  pores  with  water  again.  This 
they  often  do  by  putting  the  piece  of  wood 
which  they  wish  to  bend,  in  hot  water  or 
hot  steam.  That  is  the  method  by  which 
the  workmen  bend  the  wood  round  to 
make  boy's  hoops,  or  the  runners  of  sleds. 

When  wood,  or  pasteboard,  or  any  other 
such  substance,  has  been  thoroughly  wet, 
so  that  the  pores  are  filled  with  water,  and 
is  then  dried,  it  shrinks  in  its  size  as  well 
as  hardens  in  its  substance ;  and  if  it 
dries  too  fast,  it  is  very  apt  to  shrink  un- 
equally, and  this  does  mischief  in  two 
ways.  The  two  kinds  of  mischief  thus 
produced  are  cracking  and  warping. 


144        MARY   GAY'S   WOUK  IN  WINTER. 

When  the  wood  is  very  thick,  and  one 
part  dries  before  the  rest,  it  shrinks  away 
from  the  rest,  and  this  opens  a  crack.  If 
you  look  at  the  ends  of  the  sticks  of  wood 
in  a  wood-pile,  or  any  stick  brought  to  put 
upon  a  fire,  you  will  almost  always  see 
cracks  in  the  wood  which  were  produced 
in  this  way.  There  will  always  be  cracks, 
in  fact,  if  the  wood  was  cut  for  the  fire 
when  it  was  green,  and  so  the  ends  left  to 
dry  afterward.  If  the  wood  was  perfectly 
dry  before  it  was  cut,  then  it  would  not 
shrink  afterward,  and  there  would  be  no 
cracks. 

If  the  wood,  instead  of  being  thick  like 
a  log,  is  thin  like  a  board,  and  one  part 
dries  before  the  rest,  it  will  shrink;  but  now 
instead  of  opening  a  crack  it  will  pull  the 
board  out  of  shape,  —  which  it  can  do,  as 
the  wood  when  in  the  shape  of  a  board  is 
comparatively  thin,  and  can  easily  be  bent. 
This  is  called  warping,  and  it  is  quite  a 
curious  process. 

The  way  to  prevent  wood  from  cracking 
is  to  make  it  dry  very  slowly  ;  and  to  pre- 
vent it  from  warping,  it  must  be  put  under 
pressure,  and  held  perfectly  flat  until  it  is 


ABOUT  DRYING.  145 

dry.  In  this  way  the  part  that  dries  first 
cannot  pull  the  other  out  of  shape. 

And  as  a  general  rule,  if  anything  that  is 
wet  is  held  firmly  in  any  position  while  it 
is  drying,  and  is  kept  in  that  position  until 
it  is  dry,  it  will  remain  permanently  in  that 
position  after  it  is  dry. 

If  you  have  a  book  with  the  leaves  all 
curled  up  or  doubled  over  at  the  corner, 
making  what  are  called  dog's  ears,  and 
you  dampen  the  corners  by  holding  them 
over  the  steam  of  a  tea-kettle,  pr  by  put- 
ting damp  pieces  of  newspaper  between 
the  leaves,  and  then  put  them  under  a 
weight,  and  leave  them  so  until  they  are 
dry,  they  will  retain  the  form  that  they 
were  held  in  while  they  were  drying,  and 
so  remain  flat,  as  they  ought  to  be. 

Sometimes  children  try  to  smooth  out 
the  dog's  ears  from  their  books  by  putting 
them  in  press  without  damping  them  ;  but 
this  does  comparatively  very  little  good. 
They  must  be  made  damp,  and  then  held 
in  the  position  you  wish  them  to  retain 
while  they  are  drying,  and  that  will  fix 
them. 

Pressing  them  without  first  making  them 
10 


146        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

damp  is  like  ironing  clothes  when  they  are 
dry,  which  never  makes  them  smooth. 

Now  Mary  did  not  understand  all  these 
things  about  the  philosophy  of  drying 
things;  and  so  when  the  boxes  were  fin- 
ished, and  John  said  there  was  nothing  to 
be  done  but  to  dry  them,  she  proposed  that 
they  should  put  them  down  before  the  fire, 
where  they  would  dry  quick. 

"  We  don't  want  them  to  dry  quick," 
said  John :  "  we  want  them  to  dry  slowly. 
If  they  dry^quick  they  will  be  apt  to  warp 
all  out  of  shape." 

"  I  don't  see  why  that  should  be,"  said 
Mary. 

«  Why,  the  philosophy  of  it  is  this,"  said 
John  :  "  When  wood  or  paper  or  pasteboard, 
that  is  wet  through,  dries,  it  shrinks.  Now 
if  we  put  our  boxes  down  before  the  fire, 
the  corners  and  sides  that  come  nearest  the 
fire  will  shrink  faster  than  the  other  parts 
do,  and  so  pull  the  whole  box  out  of 


«  Is  that  the  philosophy  of  it  ?  "  asked 
Luly. 

"  Yes,"  said  John,  "  that  is  the  philoso- 
phy of  it." 


ABOUT  DRYING.  147 

Luly  had  not  understood  John's  expla- 
nation at  all.  She  asked  the  question  only 
for  the  sake  of  the  pleasure  of  repeating 
such  a  hard  word  as  philosophy. 

"  Children,"  said  Sophronia,  "  have  n't 
you  almost  finished  your  work  ?  I  want 
the  ironing-board  pretty  soon.  I  have  got 
a  little  ironing  to  do." 

"  Yes,''  said  John,  "  we  will  clear  our 
things  away  at  once." 

So  they  began  to  put  the  things  to- 
gether. They  laid  what  was  left  of  the 
fancy  paper  in  a  pile,  and  Mary  brought  a 
portfolio  to  put  it  in,  so  as  to  keep  it 
smooth  for  another  time.  According  to 
directions  which  John  gave  her,  she  washed 
the  cork  of  the  gum-bottle,  and  also  the 
mouth  of  the  bottle,  clean,  and  then  wiped 
them  both  dry.  She  next  rubbed  a  little 
tallow  around  the  cork  to  prevent  its  stick- 
ing to  the  glass,  and  then  put  the  cork 
in.  She  also  washed  and  wiped  all  the 
brushes. 

"  If  it  is  worth  while  to  have  a  gum- 
bottle  and  brushes,"  said  John,  "  it  is  worth 
while  to  keep  them  in  order." 

"As  for  the  glue,"  said  Mary,  "  I  mean 


148    MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

to  go  in  and  ask  mother  if  she  will  not  let 
us  keep  the  cup  and  mug  for  our  glue-pot, 
and  then  we  can  let  the  glue  that  is  left 
remain  in  the  cup,  all  ready  for  the  next 
time." 

So  she  went  into  the  parlor  to  make  this 
request,  which  was  at  once  granted.  On 
her  return  she  poured  out  the  water  from 
the  mug,  and  then  put  the  cup  back  into 
the  top  of  it,  leaving  the  glue  in  it,  to  be 
ready  there  for  the  next  time. 

"  It  will  all  dry  up,  of  course,"  said  John  ; 
"  but  then  when  we  wish  to  use  it  again, 
we  can  put  some  water  in  and  dissolve  it 
anew.  The  water  that  is  there  now  will 
all  go  off  into  the  air,  but  the  glue  will  re- 
main." 

"  Why  does  not  the  glue  go  off  into  the 
air  too  ?  "  asked  Mary. 

"  I  do  not  know,"  said  John.  "  Particles 
of  some  things  will  go  off  into  the  air  in 
this  way,  and  some  things  will  not.  I 
don't  know  why." 

"  What  things  will,  and  what  things 
won't?"  asked  Mary. 

"  Why,  water  will,  and  glue  won't,"  said 
John,  "  for  two  things ;  and  particles  of 


ABOUT  DRYING.  149 

sugar  will  not.  The  sap  which  they  get 
from  the  maple-trees  in  the  spring  is  al- 
most all  water,  but.  there  is  some  sugary 
substance  dissolved  in  it,  and  when  they 
boil  the  sap  the  water  all  goes  off  into  the 
air,  and  the  sugary  substance  stays  behind 
in  the  kettle." 

"  Let  us  make  some  sugar,  some  day, 
in  our  sugar-house,"  said  Mary. 

"  We  can't  get  any  sap  at  this  time  of 
the  year,"  said  John,  "  but  we  might  make 
some  candy,  if  there  was  only  any  way  to 
set  a  kettle.  We  can't  make  a  fireplace 
there,  because  the  opening  in  the  chimney 
does  not  come  down  to  the  ground.  But 
we  could  set  a  stove  there  if  we  only  had 
one." 

"  I  know  where  there  is  a  stove,"  said 
Mary.  "  Only  it  is  cracked." 

«  Where  is  it  ?  "  asked  John. 

"  Out  in  the  back  room,"  ^aid  Mary. 

"  Let  's  go  and  see  it,"  said  John. 
"  Though  first  we  must  shape  our  boxes  a 
little,  and  put  them  away  to  dry." 

John  then  explained  to  Mary,  that  the 
best  way  to  keep  their  boxes  in  a  good 
shape  while  they  were  drying,  would  be 


150        MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IX  WINTER. 

for  him  to  make  some  blocks  of  wood  just 
large  enough  to  fill  them,  and  then  to  shut 
the  covers  down,  and  put  them  under 
something  heavy  to  press  them. 

"  But  I  have  not  time  to  do  that,"  said 
he ;  "  and  besides,  my  shop  is  not  here,  to 
make  the  blocks.  But  we  can  do  very 
well  by  bending  the  boxes  into  a  good 
shape,  and  watching  them  from  time  to 
time  as  they  dry." 

So  John  took  his  box,  and  after  examin- 
ing it  attentively  as  he  turned  it  over  in 
his  hands,  while  yet  he  took  pains  to  han- 
dle it  very  carefully,  he  began  gently  to 
press  the  sides  and  corners  in  different 
places,  until  he  had  made  it  square  and 
straight  in  every  part  except  the  top,  which 
last  he  pressed  upward  so  as  to  make  it 
bulge  up  a  little.  The  pasting  of  the  pic- 
ture upon  the  top  of  the  cover  had  swelled 
the  pasteboard  somewhat,  so  as  to  occa- 
sion a  strong  tendency  in  it  to  bulge,  one 
way  or  the  other.  It  was  naturally  in- 
clined to  bulge  downward,  thus  making 
the  top  of  the  box  concave.  John  said  it 
would  be  much  better  to  have  the  bulge 
up,  so  as  to  make  the  cover  convex  at  the 
top. 


ABOUT  DRYING.  151 

"  A  box  looks  much  better,"  said  he,  "to 
have  the  top  rounding  upwards,  rather  than 
to  have  it  sink  down,  so  as  to  make  a 
hollow. 

"  If  I  had  a  block,"  said  he,  "  that  would 
exactly  fill  the  inside  of  the  box,  then  1 
could  put  the  block  in,  and  put  the  cover 
on  the  top,  and  set  the  whole  under  some 
pressure,  and  then  the  top  would  dry  per- 
fectly flat.  But  I  don't  think  that  that 
would  be  any  better.  A  box  looks  quite 
as  well  to  have  the  top  a  little  rounding. 
People  often  make  them  so  on  purpose." 

So  saying,  John  put  his  hand  on  the 
underside  of  his  cover,  and  pushed  the 
pasteboard  up,  so  as  to  make  it  convex 
on  the  upper  side.  He  also  took  care  to 
press  out  the  corners  and  the  sides  where- 
ever  they  needed  it,  so  as  to  give  both  the 
box  and  the  cover  the  true  form  in  every 
part. 

Mary  and  Luly  did  the  same  with  their 
boxes. 

"  Now,"  said  John,  "  we  will  put  them 
away  in  some  safe  and  cool  place,  where 
they  will  dry  slowly,  and  to-night  before 
you  go  to  bed  you  may  look  at  them 


152        MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IN   WINTER. 

again,  and  see  if  they  are  still  in  good 
shape." 

So  all  the  three  children  went  with  the 
boxes  into  the  back  hall,  and  there  put 
them  into  a  closet,  where  they  would  be 
safe.  The  closet  was  cool,  but  not  cold 
enough  to  freeze,  for  there  was  a  stove  in 
the  hall  which  kept  all  that  part  of  the 
house  moderately  warm. 

"  And  now,"  said  John,  "  let  us  go  and 
see  the  stove." 

So  Mary  led  the  waj  out  into  the  back 
room,  and  there  showed  John  a  pretty 
large  stove,  of  the  kind  called  a  Franklin 
stove.  It  was  of  the  shape  of  a  fireplace, 
being  open  in  front.  One  of  the  jambs 
had  become  cracked,  and  this  disfigured 
the  stove  so  much  that  it  had  been  con- 
demned and  set  away,  and  another  one 
had  been  provided  to  put  in  its  place  in 
the  house. 

John  said  that  he  thought  they  could 
put  up  that  stove  very  nicely  in  the  old 
sugar-house,  if  they  could  have  it.  There 
was  a  short  piece  of  pipe  belonging  to  it, 
which  John  said  could  go  back  into  the 
opening  in  the  chimney,  .and  he  could 


ABOUT   DRYIXG.  153 

mend  up  around  it  with  bricks,  —  provided 
he  could  only  get  some  rnortar. 

But  it  was  too  cold  for  them  to  stand 
out  there  talking  about  it  at  that  time,  and 
so  they  went  back  into  the  kitchen  again. 
There  they  found  that  while  they  had  been 
gone,  Sophronia  had  taken  the  ironing- 
board  and  put  it  upon  a  table  near  the 
window,  and  was  now  beginning  her  iron- 
ing. They  all  went  and  stood  by  her  a 
little  while,  watching  the  process.  It  fur- 
nished a  striking  illustration  of  the  princi- 
ple which  John  had  been  explaining  to 
them,  namely,  that  damp  substances,  like 
the  fibres  of  cloth,  when  dried  remained  in 
the  form  which  they  were  made  to  assume 
while  drying ;  for  the  flat-iron  dried  the 
fibres  of  the  cloth  by  its  heat,  and  while  it 
was  drying  them  held  them  flat  and  smooth 
by  its  smoothness. 

While  the  children  were  standing  at  the 
table  watching  Sophronia's  operations,  a 
gleam  of  sunshine  suddenly  came  in  through 
the  window  upon  the  table. 

"  Look  !  "  exclaimed  John.  "  There  is 
the  sun.  It  is  clearing  away  !  It  is  clear- 
ing away !  " 


154         MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

On  looking  out  the  window  they  all  saw, 
true  enough,  that  the  snowing  had  ceased 
and  the  sun  was  breaking  through  the 
clouds. 

"  Let  us  go  out,"  said  John,  "  and  break 
the  paths." 

Mary  and  Luly  eagerly  accepted  this 
proposal,  and  rushed  into  the  other  room 
to  procure  what  they  called  their  snow-rig, 
which  consisted  of  warm  clothing  for  their 
necks  and  shoulders,  and  thick  warm  stock- 
ings that  came  up  over  their  pantalets 
above  their  knees.  With  these  means  of 
protection  they  could  safely  wallow  about 
in  the  deepest  snows,  and  nothing  pleased 
them  so  much  as  to  go  out  at  the  close 
of  such  snow-storms  as  this,  and  break  out 
the  paths. 

By  the  time  that  they  were  ready,  John 
was  ready  too,  and  they  all  went  out. 
First  they  broke  out  the  paths  from  all  the 
doors,  through  the  yards,  out  into  the  street, 
wading  through  the  snow  back  and  forth, 
and  filling  the  air  with  calls  to  each  other 
and  shouts  of  laughter.  When  Mary  or 
Luly  found  the  snow  so  deep  that  they 
could  not  make  their  way  through  it,  they 


ABOUT  DRYING.  155 

would  sit  down,  as  if  giving  up  in  despair, 
but  yet  shouting  with  laughter.  They 
would  sometimes  sink  so  deep  as  almost 
to  be  buried  up ;  while  the  deeper  they 
went  the  more  they  seemed  to  be  filled 
with  joy  and  pleasure. 

John  would  then  soon  come  to  the  place 
and  trample  the  snow  down  before  them 
and  around  them,  so  that  they  could  go  on 
again. 

After  a  time  the  children  made  their 
way  through  the  snow  round  toward  the 
barn,  and  there  they  found  Jotham  bring- 
ing out  the  oxen. 

"There's  Jotham,"  said  John.  "He  is 
going  to  break  out  the  road,  and  we  will 
go  and  help  him." 

Jotham  was  in  the  act  of  attaching  the 
oxen  to  the  sled,  and  when  the  team  was 
ready,  John  put  the  board  on,  between  the 
two  end-bars,  and  then  the  children  took 
their  stations  upon  the  board,  holding  on 
by  the  stakes  at  each  side.  Mary  took 
one  stake  and  John  and  Luly  the  other. 
John  took  care  that  Luly  did  not  fall, 
though  he  knew  that  it  would  have  done 
little  harm  if  she  were  to  fall,  as  the  ground 


Io6       MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 

was  covered  everywhere  so  deep  with  soft 
snow. 

When  the  oxen  were  ready,  Jptham  drove 
them  out  by  the  great  gate  into  the  road, 
and  then  went  along  the  road,  first  one 
way  and  then  the  other,  breaking  through 
all  the  big  drifts  and  trampling  down  the 
snow,  so  that  horses  and  sleighs  could  pass 
along.  At  length,  when  this  work  was 
thoroughly  done,  Jotham  came  back  again 
with  the  sled,  bringing  Mary  and  Luly  to 
the  house,  and  John  went  home. 


A  JANUARY  THAW.  .157 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A    JANUARY    THAW. 

SOMETIMES  young  farmers  who  are  mak- 
ing new  farms  in  the  woods,  and  there 
comes  some  difficult  work  to  do  which  one 
cannot  do  alone,  and  there  is  nobody  near 
them  that  they  can  hire,  —  or  if  they  have 
not  any  money  to  spare  to  pay  a  hired 
man,  —  get  over  the  difficulty  by  helping 
each  other,  on  the  plan  of  what  they  call 
" changing  works" 

For  example,  once  there  were  two  young 
farmers  who  had  new  farms  in  the  woods, 
not  very  far  from  each  other.  Their  names 
were  Thomas  and  John.  Thomas  had 
been  upon  his  farm  the  longest  time,  and 
he  had  a  house  built,  but  there  was  no 
cellar  under  it.  John's  farm  was  entirely 
new,  and  he  had  no  house. 

John  had  chosen  a  young  woman  to  be 
his  wife,  and  he  was  in  haste  to  be  married, 
and  so  he  concluded  to  build  a  log  house 


158         MARY   GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

first,  and  live  in  that  a  few  years  until  he 
could  build  a  better  one  of  timbers  and 
boards.  He  accordingly  felled  a  good  many 
straight  trees,  and  cut  the  trunks  of  the 
proper  length  to  form  logs  for  his  house, 
and  hauled  them  by  means  of  his  oxen  to 
the  place  where  his  house  was  to  be.  But 
he  could  not  possibly  build  his  house  alone, 
for  alone  he  could  not  lift  such  large  and 
heavy  logs  up  into  their  places. 

In  the  same  manner  Thomas,  in  prepar- 
ing to  make  his  cellar,  had  no  difficulty  in 
digging  out  the  ground  under  his  housje,  — 
first,  however,  propping  up  the  house  at 
the  four  corners  to  prevent  its  sinking  into 
the  opening,  —  nor  in  digging  around  a 
large  number  of  big  stones  in  one  of  his 
fields,  and  then  putting  a  chain  around 
them  and  making  the  oxen  pull  them  out 
and  then  haul  them  on  a  drag  to  the  house, 
ready  to  be  built  into  a  wall.  But  he 
could  not  actually  build  them  into  a  wall 
alone,  for  he  could  not  by  himself  pry 
such  large  and  heavy  stones  into  their 
places. 

So  Thomas  and  John  agreed  to  exchange 
works.  John  said  to  Thomas,  "  If  you  will 


A  JANUARY  THAW.  15Q 

come  and  work  with  me  two  days,  and  help 
me  build  up  these  great  logs  into  a  house, 
I  will  then  come  and  work  with  you  two 
days,  and  help  you  build  your  big  stones 
into  a  wall." 

So  they  did,  and  by  exchanging  works  in 
this  way,  in  due  time  the  house  and  cellar 
were  both  completed. 

Now  John's  and  Mary's  mothers  adopted 
a  plan  somewhat  similar  to  this,  though 
what  they  exchanged  was  not  work,  but 
children  —  or  perhaps  I  might  say  the  care 
of  children.  John's  mother  was  saying 
one  day  that  she  someiimes  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  know  what  to  do  with  Benny  on 
stormy  days,  when  he  could  not  go  out  to 
play,  and  John  was  gone  away  to  school. 

"  He  gets  tired  of  playing  alone,"  said 
she,  "  and  comes  continually  to  know  what 
he  shall  do  next." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary's  mother.  "  It  is  just 
so  with  Luly  when  Mary  is  gone  to 
school." 

At  last  the  idea  occurred  to  them  of 
making  an  exchange.  The  plan  which 
they  devised  was  to  have  Benny  sent  over 
one  stormy  day  to  play  with  Luly,  and  the 


160         MARY  GAT'S  WORK  IX  WINTER. 

next  stormy  day  to  let  Luly  be  sent  to  play 
with  Benny. 

This  plan  was  found  on  trial  to  work 
admirably  welL  The  mothers  both  liked 
it  very  much  indeed,  and  the  children  liked 
it  even  better  than  the  mothers. 

One  day  toward  the  end  of  February 
there  came  a  thaw.  It  began  to  rain  about 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon  ;  and  the  next 
morning  the  yards  and  all  the  grounds 
around  the  house  were  filled  with  pools  of 
water  and  melting  snow,  and  in  the  road 
all  the  sleigh-tracks  were  filled  with  little 
rivulets,  trying  to  find  their  way  down  into 
some  brook  or  river.  Of  course  there  was 
no  such  thing  as  going  out  to  play  at  such 
a  time  as  this. 

When  Benny  came  down  in  the  morn- 
ing, just  before  breakfast,  he  went  to  the 
window  and  looked  out.  Nothing  was  to 
be  seen  but  a  deluge  of  melting  suow  and 
water,  and  of  rain  pouring  down  from  the 
skies  faster  than  the  little  brooks  and  rivers 
could  carry  the  water  away. 

"John,"  said  Benny,  "this  is  a  good 
day  for  me  to  go  to  Auntie's;  and  it  is 
my  turn.  Luly  came  here  the  last  time," 


A  JAXl'ARY    THAW.  Id 

"  Yes,"  said  John.  "  And  I  will  go  and 
take  you  over  there  in  the  sleigh,  as  soon 
as  we  have  done  breakfast" 

Mrs.  Gay,  Benny's  mother,  acceded  to 
this  proposal,  and  it  was  carried  into  effect. 
Benny  enjoyed  the  ride  very  much,  the 
melting  snow  and  water  in  the  road  being 
sometimes  so  deep  that  some  of  it  almost 
came  into  the  sleigh,  and  it  rained  so  hard 
that  he  had  to  hold  a  large  umbrella  over 
his  head  all  the  way. 

He  had  a  little  package  under  his  arm, 
which  he  was  very  careful  not  to  let  get 
wet.  This  package  contained  two  small 
scrap-books,  one  for  himself  and  one  for 
Luly,  which  John  had  made  for  them. 

These  scrap-books  were  of  about  the 
size  of  a  piece  of  note-paper  in  length  and 
breadth,  and  in  respect  to  thickness  they 
contained  sixteen  true  leaves  and  about  as 
many  false  leaves. 

This  is  a  curious  thing  in  respect  to  a 
scrap-book,  namely,  that  it  must  have  false 
leaves  as  well  as  true  leaves,  and  about  as 
many  of  one  kind  as  of  the  other. 

Benny's  attention  was  first  called  to  this 
peculiarity  in  the  construction  of  a  scrap- 
11 


162        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN   WINTER. 

book  by  looking  at  one  which  John  had 
bought  at  a  book-store,  in  order  to  put 
some  pictures  in,  which  he  had  saved  for 
the  purpose.  Whenever  he  saw  a  picture 
upon  any  waste  piece  of  a  pictorial  paper, 
or  on  any  loose  sheet,  he  would  cut  it  out ; 
and  when  he  had  nothing  else  to  do  he 
would  color  it  by  means  of  the  paints  in 
his  paint-box.  At  last,  when  he  had  accu- 
mulated a  considerable  number  of  these 
pictures,  he  bought  a  scrap-book  to  put 
them  into.  It  was  this  scrap-book  which 
Benny  saw  when  he  brought  it  home. 

He  laid  it  down  upon  his  desk,  and  went 
to  the  fire  to  warm  his  hands.  The  scrap- 
book  was  wrapped  up  in  a  paper,  and  tied 
with  a  string. 

"What  have  you  got  in  this  paper?" 
asked  Benny. 

"  A  scrap-book,"  said  John. 

"  May  I  open  it  ?  "  asked  Benny. 

"  You  may  take  off  the  string,"  said 
John,  "  if  you  can  untie  the  knot,  and 
then  make  it  into  a  snug  coil  by  winding 
it  round  your  fingers." 

This  Benny  did.  John  had  taught  him 
how  to  coil  up  strings  neatly  in  this  way 
before. 


A  JANUARY   THAW.  163 

"  Now  may  I  take  off  the  paper  ?  "  asked 
Benny. 

"  Yes,"  said  John,  "  take  off  the  paper 
carefully,  and  fold  it  up." 

Benny  did  this  also. 

"  Now  may  I  open  the  book  ?  "  asked 
Benny. 

"  Yes,"  said  John. 

So  Benny  opened  the  book. 

"  What  a  thin  book  it  is,"  said  Benny. 
"  Only  the  back  is  pretty  thick." 

"  Oh,  Johnny,"  he  said,  after  opening 
the  book  and  looking  between  the  leaves, 
"  this  is  not  a  good  book.  A  great  many 
of  the  leaves  have  been  cut  out." 

So  saying,  Benny  showed  John  the  edges 
of  the  false  leaves  where  they  came  into 
view,  among  the  true  ones. 

"That's  all  right,"  said  John.  "They 
make  scrap-books  so  on  purpose." 

The  truth  is,  that  if  scrap-books  \vere 
made  in  the  usual  way,  with  all  the  leaves 
full,  it  would  be  bulged  all  out  of  shape 
when  the  pictures  were  pasted  in.  For 
when  you  come  to  paste  pictures  on  each 
side  of  each  leaf,  you  make  each  leaf  three 
times  as  thick  as  it  was  before,  and  that 


164        MARY   GAY'S   \YORK   IN   WINTER. 

would  make  the  whole  body  of  the  book 
three  times  as  thick  as  the  back,  and  it 
would  not  shut  well  at  all.  In  order  to 
make  allowance  for  this  increased  thick- 
ness of  the  body  of  the  book  when  the 
pictures  are  placed  in,  the  back  of  the 
book  is  made  of  double  or  triple  thickness 
at  the  beginning,  by  putting  in  false  leaves 
as  they  are  called,  —  that  is,  leaves  that 
come  out  only  a  little  way,  not  so  far  as  to 
the  inner  edges  of  the  pictures.  This  makes 
the  back  of  the  book  look  thick  and  the 
body  of  it  thin,  when  it  is  first  bought,  but 
afterward,  when  the  pictures  come  to  be 
pasted  in,  it  all  comes  right.  The  body  of 
the  book  now  becomes  as  thick  as  the 
back. 

John  explained  this  to  Benny,  and 
Benny  was  much  interested  in  the  expla- 
nation. He  began  moreover  to  wish  that 
he  had  a  scrap-book. 

"  I  wish  you  would  make  me  a  scrap- 
book,  John,"  said  he,  —  "a  small  one,"  he 
added.  "  You  need  not  make  it  so  large 
as  this." 

"  How  could  you  get  any  pictures  to  put 
in  it  ?  "  asked  John. 


A  JANUARY   THAW.  165 

"  Mary  will  give  me  some,"  said  Benny. 
"  She  saves  all  her  pictures,  and  has  got  a 
good  many.  She  would  give  some  of  them 
to  Luly  and  me,  if  we  only  had  a  scrap- 
book  to  put  them  in.  I  wish  that  you 
would  make  two  little  scrap-books,  —  one 
for  Luly  and  one  for  me." 

"  I  think  that  would  be  a  very  good 
plan,"  said  John. 

"  Will  you  do  it  ?  "  asked  Benny. 

"  I  can't  promise.  I  never  like  to  make 
promise?.  All  I  can  say  is,  I  think  it  would 
be  a  very  good  plan." 

So  John  sat  down  to  his  work  «of  gum- 
ming his  pictures  into  his  book,  —  Benny 
looking  on  all  the  time  and  observing  how 
he  did  it.  He  saw  that  he  took  pains  to 
trim  every  picture  square  before  he  put  it 
in,  and  then  was  very  careful  to  put  it 
square  upon  the  page.  He  also  gummed 
the  pictures  only  at  the  four  corners,  and 
put  on  moreover  only  a  very  little  gum  at 
each  corner.  This  little  however  was  very 
thick,  and  it  seemed  to  fasten  the  corner 
down  immediately,  and  to  make  it  quite 
strong. 

A  day  or  two  after  this,  John  made  the 


166         MARY  GAY'S   WORK   IN    WINTER. 

two  scrap-books  for  Benny  and  Luly.  He 
took  one  large  sheet  of  smooth  wrapping- 
paper  for  each  book,  and  folded  it  up  again 
and  again  un'il  it  formed  pages  of  the  proper 
size.  Then  he  cut  the  paper  apart  at  the 
foldings  and  inserted  between  each  sheet 
of  two  leaves  a  strip  of  the  same  kind  of 
paper,  which  he  had  previously  cut  out  and 
folded  lengthwise,  so  as  to  make  of  each 
strip  two  false  leaves. 

Having  put  all  these  leaves  together 
properly,  the  true  and  the  false  ones  in 
alternation,  he  sewed  them  together  by 
long  stitches  of  strong  thread  through  the 
back. 

He  made  two  books  in  this  way,  and 
when  they  were  both  sewed  he  opened 
one  of  them,  and  spread  it  out  upon  the 
table,  and  cut  out  two  pieces  of  marble 
paper  just  as  large  as  the  book  was  when 
spread  open.  He  then  diluted  his  gum  by 
putting  in  more  water,  so  as  to  make  it 
pretty  thin  ;  for  when  you  are  going  to 
gum  over  a  large  surface,  the  gum  must 
be  pretty  thin. 

He  applied  the  gum  \vith  a  brush  to 
one  of  the  marble-papers,  and  having  spread 


A  JANUARY    THAW.  167 

open  one  of  the  books,  he  laid  it  flat 
upon  the  sheet,  —  the  part  intended  for  the 
back  down.  He  did  the  same  with  the 
other  book,  and  then  placed  the  books  to- 
gether, with  one  or  two  thicknesses  of 
newspaper  between  and  on  each  side  of 
them,  and  put  them  between  two  small 
square  boards,  and  screwed  them  up  tight 
in  his  carpenter's  vice,  in  his  shop,  in  order 
that  they  might  remain  pressed  perfectly 
flat  and  smooth  while  they  were  drying. 

He  left  them  there  all  that  day  and 
night.  The  next  morning  he  took  them 
out,  changed  the  newspapers,  and  put 
them  in  again.  .By  the  second  day  he 
thought  they  were  quite  dry,  so  he  took 
them  out  again,  and  trimmed  the  edge  of 
them  with  a  ruler  and  a  sharp-pointed 
knife  upon  a  cutting-board. 

Thus  he  made  two  very  pretty  little 
scrap-books ;  and  it  was  these  two  scrap- 
books  that  formed  the  little  flat  parcel 
under  Benny's  arm,  as  he  was  riding  along 
with  John  on  the  way  to  his  aunt's,  through 
the  rain  and  melting  snow,  at  the  time  of 
the  thaw. 


168       MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

EQUAL    PARTITION. 

VERY  soon  after  Benny  arrived  at  his 
aunt's,  he  showed  Mary  and  Luly  the  two 
scrap-books  which  John  had  made  for  him 
and  Luly.  They  were  both  very  much 
pleased  with  them. 

"  And  I  have  got  a  great  many  little 
pictures  to  give  you  to  put  in  them,"  said 
Mary.  "  By-and-by  I  will  give  them  to 
you  and  give  you  some  colors  to  paint 
them  with,  and  then  you  can  put  them 
into  your  scrap-books." 

Luly  and  Benny  accordingly  played  with 
the  junk-store  for  about  an  hour,  and  then 
Mary  was  ready  to  attend  to  the  pictures. 
She  set  out  a  table  for  them,  and  placed 
them  at  it  in  high  chairs,  and  gave  each  of 
them  a  tumbler  half  full  of  water,  a  paint- 
brush, a  plate  upon  which  she  had  rubbed 
a  great  deal  of  paint  of  four  bright  colors, 
namely,  green,  red,  blue,  and  brown.  She 


EQUAL  PARTITION.  169 

also  laid  upon  the  table  a  number  of  little 
pictures,  such  as  she  had  cut  out  from 
loose  sheets,  headings  of  bills,  advertising 
circulars,  and  from  other  similar  sources. 
She  always  saved  in  this  way  all  the  pic- 
tures that  she  saw,  even  if  they  were  not 
very  pretty  ones.  She  knew  that,  whatever 
they  were,  Luly  would  like  to  paint  them. 

Luly  immediately  put  out  her  hand  and 
seized  one  of  the  pictures,  saying, — 

"  I  speak  for  this  one.  It  is  the  prettiest 
one  of  all." 

"  No,  Luly,"  said  Mary,  "  put  it  back ; 
you  must  divide  them  fairly." 

Benny  took  up  his  paint-brush  and 
dipped  it  into  the  water  in  order  at  once 
to  take  up  some  paint  upon  it,  but  Mary 
directed  him  to  put  it  down  again. 

"  I  am  going  to  give  you  some  direc- 
tions," said  she,  "  and  you  must  not  begin 
your  work  until  you  get  your  directions. 

"  In  the  first  place,"  said  she,  "  you  must 
divide  the  pictures  fairly.  There  are  eight 
of  them  in  all,  four  for  each,  and  you  can 
draw  lots  for  them,  if  you  can't  agree  in 
any  other  way. 

"  Then  when  you  have  divided  the  pin- 


170        MARY   GAY'S   WORK   IN   WINTER. 

tures,"  continued  Mary,  "  you  can  each 
take  one  and  begin  to  color  it.  I  advise 
you  to  begin  with  one  of  the  smallest 
ones. 

"  I  have  given  each  of  you  a  plate  with 
colors  upon  it,  —  green,  red,  blue,  and 
brown.  The  green  is  for  the  grass  and  the 
leaves  of  the  trees.  The  brown  is  for  the 
trunks  of  the  trees  and  the  roofs  of  the 
houses.  The  red  is  for  the  chimneys,  and 
for  the  whole  house  if  you  wish  to  make 
believe  that  it  is  built  of  brick.  The  dresses 
of  the  girls  and  boys,  and  also  of  men  and 
women,  if  there  are  any  in  the  picture,  you 
can  paint  in  green,  red,  blue,  or  brown,  ac- 
cording lo  your  fancy. 

"  When  any  one  of  your  colors  is  out," 
said  Mary,  "  you  can  come  to  me,  and  I 
will  rub  you  some  more.  That  is  the  only 
thing  you  will  have  to  come  to  me  for.  I 
am  going  to  be  at  work  in  the  other  room, 
doing  my  sums,  and  you  must  not  inter-* 
rupt  me  if  you  can  possibly  help  it." 

So  saying,  Mary  left  the  children  at  their 
work  and  went  away. 

They,  however,  very  soon  got  into  diffi- 
culty. The  difficulty  was  about  dividing 


EQUAL   PARTITION.  171 

the  pictures.  They  both  wanted  the  same 
ones. 

The  reason  why  they  both  preferred  the 
same  ones  was  not  exactly  because  their 
independent  opinions  and  tastes  were  the 
same,  but  becmse  Luly  followed  Benny's 
opinion  and  taste.  Every  picture  that 
Benny  showed  any  disposition  to  prefer, 
Luly  thought  at  once  must  be  the  best. 
In  consequence  of  this  interference  they 
soon  became  involved  in  quite  serious  dis- 
putes, and  in  1h<;  end  they  both  went  to 
Mary,  complaining  each  of  them  that  the 
other  would  have  all  the  prettiest  pictures. 

"  You  must  divide  them  fairly,"  said 
Mary. 

"  But  I  want  the  picture  of  the  wind- 
mill," said  Benny, "  because  I  want  to  paint 
the  sails  red." 

"  And  I  want  the  picture  of  the  wind- 
mill too,"  said  Luly.  "  /  am  going  to 
paint  the  sails  red." 

"  You  must  divide  them  fairly,"  said 
Mary.  "  There  are  several  ways  to  do  it. 
I  will  go  and  show  you  how." 

So  Mary  laid  down  her  slate  and  pencil, 
and  went  into  the  room  where  the  children 


172         MARY    GAY'S    WORK    IN    WINTER. 

had  been,  in  order  to  show  them  how  to 
divide  the  pictures  fairly. 

She  began  by  saying  that  there  were 
four  or  five  ways  of  dividing  such  things 
fairly,  so  as  to  give  to  each  one  an  equal 
advantage,  and  added  that  she  would  show 
them  all  the  ways,  and  that  then  they  could 
take  their  choice. 

"  The  first  way,"  said  she,  "  is  to  take 
turns  in  choosing,  and  let  the  youngest 
begin.  I  will  show  you  how.  We  will 
divide  them  in  this  way  once,  —  only  the 
division  is  not  to  go  for  anything,  but  only 
to  let  you  see  the  way.  Put  all  the  pic- 
tures in  a  row  on  the  table." 

So  the  children  put  them  all  in  a  row. 

"  Now  we  will  suppose  that  Benny  is 
willing  to  let  Luly  have  her  first  choice." 

"  But  then  she  will  choose  the  wind- 
mill," said  Benny,  with  a  complaining  tone 
of  voice. 

"  No,  I  should  not  choose  the  windmill 
either,"  said  Luly. 

"  She  might,  at  any  rate,"  said  Mary. 
"  She  would  have  a  right  to  do  it.  And 
you  have  a  right  to  object  to  giving  her  the 
first  choice  on  that  account,  if  you  ch:ose. 


EQUAL   PARTITION.  173 

You  can  do  as  you  please  about  it.  It  is 
generous  in  such  cases  for  the  oldest  to 
give  the  youngest  the  first  choice ;  but  if 
they  are  not  willing  to  do  so,  nobody  has 
any  right  to  complain." 

"  Well,"  said  Benny,  "she  may  have  her 
first  choice." 

"  It  is  not  to  go  for  anything,"  said 
Mary,  "  but  only  to  show  how  this  plan 
works." 

So  Luly  chose  a  picture,  —  not  the  wind- 
mill. 

"  Now,  Benny,  it  is  your  turn." 

"  And  can  I  take  the  windmill  ?  " 

"  You  can  take  anything  you  please," 
said  Mary.  "  Luly  has  had  her  choice, 
and  now  it  is  your  turn,  and  you  can  take 
anything  you  please." 

Benny  decided  to  take  the  windmill. 

Luly  now  took  her  turn  again,  and  then 
Benny  his,  and  so  on  in  rotation  until  all 
the  pictures  had  been  taken,  four  for  each. 

"  There  !  "  said  Mary,  "  that  is  one  way 
to  divide  them,  and  it  is  a  very  good  way 
when  the  oldest  is  generous  enough  to  be 
willing  to  give  the  youngest  the  first  choice. 
If  the  oldest  is  not  willing  to  do  that,  then 


174         MARY  GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 

you  must  draw  lots  to  see  who  shall  have 
the  first  choice,  and  then  go  on  choosing 
in  turn  until  all  are  taken.  That  is  one 
way." 

"  Now  tell  us  another  way,"  asked 
Benny. 

"  The  second  way,"  said  Mary,  "  is  for 
you  both  to  join  together  in  dividing  the 
pictures  into  two  parcels,  as  nearly  equal 
as  you  can,  putting  just  as  many  of  the 
prettiest  ones  into  one  parcel  as  you  do  in 
the  other,  so  as  to  make  one  set,  oji  the 
whole,  as  nearly  as  possible  as  valuable  as 
the  other.  Then,  when  you  have  made 
this  division,  you  draw  lots  to  see  which 
parcel  each  one  shall  have." 

"  That 's  a  good  way,"  said  Benny. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  "  it  is  a  good  way, 
provided  you  can  agree  together  in  divid- 
ing the  pictures  so  as  to  make  two  equal 
parcels.  But  sometimes  children  have  so 
little  sense  that  they  quarrel  in  trying  to 
do  that.  But  you  can  try  and  see  if  you 
can  do  it  without  quarrelling." 

So  the  children  began  to  divide  the  pic- 
tures with  a  view  of  making  two  parcels 
of  equal  value.  At  length,  after  making 


EQUAL  PARTITION.  175 

several  changes,  they  succeeded  in  effecting 
the  division,  and  then  Mary  said  that  the 
next  thing  was  to  draw  lots  to  see  which 
should  have  the  choice  of  them. 

"  The  easiest  way  to  draw  lots,"  said 
Mary,  "  is  for  each  one  to  open  a  book  and 
take  the  last  letter  on  the  right-hand  page. 
Then  the  one  who  gets  the  highest  letter 
of  the  alphabet  has  the  choice. 

"  Sometimes  one  person  opens  the  book 
for  all  the  persons,"  said  Mary  ;  "  only  in 
that  case  you  must  always  say  who  you 
are  opening  for,  before  you  open.  But  it 
is  generally  better  to  let  each  one  open  for 
himself." 

"  Yes,"  said  Luly,  "  let  me  open  for  my- 
self." 

So  Mary  gave  Luly  a  book,  and  she 
opened  it  at  random,  and  then  Mary  pointed 
to  the  last  letter  on  the  right-hand  page.  It 
was  the  letter  t. 

"  Now,  Benny,"  said  Mary,  "  it  is  your 
turn." 

So  Benny  took  the  book  and  opened  it. 
His  letter  was  /.  Luly  thus  got  the  highest 
'etter,  and  had  her  choice  of  the  two  sets 
into  which  the  pictures  had  been  divided, 
and  Benny  had  the  other. 


176       MARY  GAY'S   WORK   IX   WINTER. 

"  That  is  the  second  way,"  said  Mary. 
"  You  make  two  equal  parcels  and  draw 
lots  for  the  choice.  But  this  division  is 
not  to  go  for  anything.  It  was  only  to 
show  you  how  to  do  it  that  way.  Now 
there  is  another  way.  First  mix  the  pic- 
tures all  up  together  again." 

So  the  children  put  the  pictures  together 
again,  and  then  Mary  said  that  the  next 
way  was  for  one  to  divide  the  pictures  into 
two  sets  and  the  other  to  take  his  choice. 
Benny  might  divide  them,  she  said,  and 
then  let  Luly  take  her  choice,  or  Luly  di- 
vide them  and  let  Benny  take  his  choice. 
It  makes  very  little  difference  which. 

Luly  wished  to  divide  them.  Her  only 
reason  however  for  this  seemed  to  be,  that 
the  dividing  was  the  first  thing  to  be  done. 
So  she  divided  the  pictures  into  two  equal 
parts,  as  nearly  as  possible,  and  let  Benny 
take  his  choice.  After  that,  Benny  divided 
them  and  let  Luly  have  the  choice. 

"  So  you  see,"  said  Mary,  "  how  foolish 
it  is  for  children  to  quarrel  about  any  things 
they  have  in  common  when  there  are  so 
many  ways  of  dividing  them  fairly.  Now 
I  am  going  back  to  my  work,  and  you 


EQUAL  PARTITION.  177 

must  divide  the  pictures  yourselves  in  some 
one  of  the  ways  that  I  have  shown.  You 
may  take  any  one  of  them  you  like." 

So  Mary  went  away,  leaving  the  children 
to  themselves.  She  expected  that  they 
would  now  immediately  divide  the  pictures 
and  at  once  begin  to  paint  them,  and  that 
they  would  come  to  her  before  long  for  a 
fresh  supply  of  color,  as  she  supposed  that 
they  would  soon  expend  what  she  had 
given  them,  especially  the  green,  as  it  takes 
so  much  green  for  the  grass  and  trees. 

But  they  did  not  come  for  a  long  time. 
The  truth  was,  that,  when  Mary  wat*  gone, 
they  began  to  try  again  the  various  modes 
o'f  dividing  the  pictures  which  Mary  had 
explained  to  them.  They  concluded  not 
to  divide  them  in  earnest  at  first,  but  only 
for  play,  in  order  to  see  how  it  would  come 
out,  and  they  became  so  much  interested 
in  this  that  they  went  on  dividing  the  pic- 
tures over  and  over  again,  with  a  great 
deal  of  talk  and  merry  laughter,  almost  all 
the  forenoon. 
12 


178        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MAKING    PICTURE-BOOKS. 

AT  length,  however,  they  concluded  that 
it  was  time  for  them  to  begin  to  paint  their 
pictures,  and  so  they  divided  them  in  ear- 
nest, and  each  one  took  their  respective 
shares.  Then  they  commenced  seriously 
the  work  of  coloring  them.  The  green,  as 
Mary  had  expected,  was  soon  exhausted, 
and  they  both  were  obliged  to  go  to  her 
for  a  fresh  supply.  They  afterward  had  to 
go  for  more  of  the  red  and  of  the  other 
colors,  and  Mary  very  readily  gave  them 
what  they  required. 

When  they  had  finished  coloring  then 
pictures  they  wished  to  begin  at  once  to 
gum  them  in  the  scrap-books ;  but  Mary 
told  them  that  they  had  been  sitting  still 
long  enough,  and  they  had  better  run  about 
and  play  until  dinner-time,  and  so  wait  til] 
after  dinner,  before  beginning  the  work  of 
gumming  the  pictures  in. 


MAKING  PICTURE-BOOKS.  179 

When  the  time  arrived,  Mary  gave  them 
all  the  necessary  directions  for  the  work. 
These  directions  are  very  simple,  but  they 
are  very  important.  By  carefully  observing 
them  you  can  make  very  pretty  picture- 
books,  if  you  will  first  only  make  the  book 
itself,  by  folding  a  sheet  or  half  a  sheet  of 
plain  wrapping-paper  properly,  and  then 
sewing  it  and  trimming  the  edges.  It  is 
better  to  put  in  some  false  leaves,  as  John 
did,  but  this  is  not  at  all  necessary  if  the 
book  is  thin. 

To  make  the  cover,  it  is  a  very  good  waj 
to  proceed  as  John  did.  if  you  have  the 
conveniences  for  gumming  or  pasting  so 
large  a  surface,  and  for  afterward  pressing 
it  while  it  is  drying,  to  make  it  dry  smooth. 
But  if  you  have  not  these  conveniences, 
any  kind  of  stiff  paper  will  do  for  a  cover. 
It  will  be  better,  however,  to  have  it  of  a 
different  color  from  the  sheets  inside. 

The  first  direction  which  Mary  gave  the 
children  was,  that  they  must  arrange  the 
pictures  on  the  several  pages  before  they 
began  to  fasten  any  of  them  in. 

"  Because,  you  see,"  said  she,  "  some  of 
the  pictures  will  go  together  better  than 


180        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

others,  and  when  you  have  decided  what 
are  to  go  upon  any  one  page,  you  will  find 
that  there  are  different  ways  of  arranging 
them,  and  some  of  these  ways  are  much 
better  than  some  others.  For  instance,  if 
you  have  four  small  pictures  and  one  large 
one  to  go  upon  a  page,  it  is  better  to  put 
the  large  one  in  the  middle,  and  two  of  the 
smaller  ones  above  and  two  others  below, 
rather  than  to  put  the  large  one  at  the  top 
or  bottom  and  all  four  of  the  small  ones 
above  or  below  it. 

"  So  you  must  determine  how  you  are 
going  to  place  all  the  pictures  upon  one 
page  before  you  fasten  any  one  of  them 
in." 

Another  direction  which  Mary  gave  was, 
that  they  must  not  put  any  of  the  pictures 
too  near  the  edge  of  the  page,  but  must 
leave  a  margin  all  around.  She  told  them 
that  this  was  always  so  in  books.  The 
printing  was  never  allowed  to  come  quite 
to  the  edge  of  the  leaf,  neither  at  the  sides 
nor  at  the  top  and  bottom.  She  opened 
two  or  three  books  and  showed  them  that 
this  was  so. 

"  There  is  a  good  reason  for  it,  too,"  said 


MAKING   PICTURE-BOOKS.  181 

Mary.  "  Uncle  Edward  told  me  the  reason. 
He  said  that  sometimes  they  had  to  trim 
off  the  edges  of  a  book  after  it  was  all  put 
together,  and  then,  if  the  printing  or  the 
pictures  came  out  to  the  edge  of  the  paper, 
some  portion  would  be  cut  off." 

"  But  our  books  are  trimmed  already," 
said  Benny. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  "  but  by-and-by,  after 
you  have  used  them  a  long  while,  perhaps 
they  will  come  unsewed,  and  then,  when 
they  are  sewed  again,  the  sheets  will  not 
come  together  exactly  as  they  did  before, 
and  to  make  the  books  look  nice  the  edges 
must  be  trimmed  again." 

There  is  another  reason,  besides  the  one 
mentioned  by  Mary,  why  the  pictures  in 
such  a  book  should  not  corns  out  quite  to 
the  margin,  and  that  is,  that  in  turning  over 
the  leaves  of  a  book  a  great  many  times 
the  edges  are  rubbed  more  or  less  by  the 
fingers,  and  so  get  worn  and  perhaps  soiled  ; 
and  thus,  if  the  pictures  are  brought  out 
quite  to  the  edge,  the  margins  of  them  will 
become  injured. 

Remember  therefore  always,  when  you 
make  books  of  any  kind,  to  leave  a  margin 


182        MARY  GAY'S  WORK   IN  WINTER. 

all  around  every  page  wide  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  pictures  or  the  reading  from  being 
injured  by  the  wearing  of  the  edges,  or  by 
the  cutting  away  of  the  paper  in  case  of 
any  new  trimming  of  the  book. 

Another  thing  that  Mary  told  the  chil- 
dren was,  that  the  gum  which  they  used  to 
gum  their  pictures  in  must  be  very  thick, 
and  only  a  very  little  of  it  be  used  near 
each  corner  of  the  picture.  She  gave  them 
each  a  brush  to  put  the  gum  on  with,  and 
showed  them  how  very  little  they  must 
take. 

Sometimes  when  people  paste  pictures, 
or  articles  cut  from  a  newspaper,  into  a 
book,  they  paste  the  whole  back  side  of  the 
picture,  and  of  course,  in  order  that  the  gum 
or  the  paste  may  be  easily  spread  over  so 
large  a  surface,  it  must  be  tolerably  thin. 
This  wets  the  paper  and  swells  it.  Then 
when  the  paper  thus  wet  is  laid  down  upon 
the  page  where  it  is  to  go,  the  part  of  the 
page  which  it  covers  is  wet  too,  and  that 
swells.  This  produces  a  great  bulge  in  the 
paper,  and  when  it  dries  it  never  comes 
back  exactly  into  its  original  condition,  but 
leaves  the  paper  warped  and  drawn  out  of 


MAKING   PICTURE-BOOKS.  183 

shape,  and  it  can  never  be  made  to  look 
smooth. 

If,  when  pictures  are  put  in  in  this  man- 
ner, the  whole  book  could  be  wet,  and  the 
pictures  put  in  upon  all  the  pages  at  the 
same  time,  and  then  the  whole  put  under 
very  heavy  pressure  until  it  was  all  dry,  — 
then  it  would  look  very  nice  and  smooth. 
But  this  it  is  very  inconvenient  to  do. 
The  best  way  is,  therefore,  in  most  cases, 
to  wet  the  pictures  and  the  pages  that  they 
are  to  be  pasted  upon,  as  little  as  possible, 
so  as  not  to  swell  them.  This  can  be  done 
by  using  the  gum  very  thick  and  then  put- 
ting on  very  litlle  at  the  corners,  and,  if  the 
picture  is  large,  a  slight  touch  here  and 
there  in  the  middle. 

After  giving  the  children  all  these  in- 
structions, Mary  asked  them  if  they  wished 
to  have  any  reading  in  their  books,  as  well 
as  pictures.  They  said  they  would  like  to 
have  some  reading  in  them  very  much. 

So  Mary  went  away,  but  soon  she  re- 
turned, bringing  with  her  a  small  basket 
which  contained  a  great  number  of  scraps 
cut  from  newspapers,  consisting  of  short 
stories,  funny  anecdotes,  conundrums,  and 


184         MARY  GAY'S  WORK   IN  WINTER. 

other  such  things.  She  had  long  been  in 
the  habit,  when  she  saw  such  things  in 
waste  newspapers,  of  cutting  them  out 
and  putting  them  away,  with  a  view  of 
using  them  in  scrap-books ;  and  now  she 
looked  over  her  collection  and  selected 
from  it  such  as  were  most  suitable  to  be 
put  into  Benny's  and  Luly's  books.  She 
read  them  to  the  children  as  she  laid  them 
out,  and  gave  half  to  Benny  and  half  to 
Luly.  She  also  gave  them  directions  about 
putting  them  in  between  and  among  the 
pictures,  wherever  there  were  vacant  spaces 
convenient  to  receive  them,  so  as  to  make 
an  r.greeable  variety  upon  every  p-ige. 

"  You  see,"  said  she,  "  when  you  grow  a 
little  older  and  can  read  well,  it  will  be  all 
the  more  amusing  to  you,  when  you  sit 
down,  to  look  over  your  books,  to  have 
stories  in  them  to  read,  and  some  riddles 
to  guess,  as  well  as  pictures  to  see." 

So  saying,  Mary  went  away  and  left 
Benny  and  Luly  to  go  on  with  their  work 
after  their  own  fashion.  This  was  better 
on  some  accounts  than  to  have  remained 
for  the  purpose  of  watching  them  at  the 
work,  to  see  that  they  did  it  right,  and  pre- 


MAKING  PICTURE-BOOKS.  185 

vent  their  making  mistakes.  It  is  true,  if 
she  had  remained  and  directed  them  in 
every  step,  the  work  would  of  course  have 
been  much  better  done,  and  the  books 
would  have  looked  better ;  but  the  chil- 
dren would  not  have  enjoyed  themselves 
so  well,  nor  would  they  have  improved  so 
much.  And  moreover,  when  the  work  was 
done,  the  children  would  not  have  felt  that 
they  made  the  books  themselves,  which 
would  have  greatly  diminished  their  satis- 
faction in  the  result. 

It  is  much  better  in  such  cases,  after 
providing  children  with  all  the  required  fa- 
cilities, and  giving  them  the  necessary  in- 
struction, to  leave  them  to  exercise  their 
own  judgment  and  skill  in  doing  the  work. 
They  learn  thus  to  act  independently  and 
with  self-reliance.  They  make  mistakes, 
and  the  work  when  done  shows  many  im- 
perfections; but  these  must  be  expected  in 
all  first  attempts.  It  is  better  to  let  the 
children  commit  these  faults  and  see  them 
for  themselves,  so  as  to  do  better  next  time, 
than  to  be  always  helping  them  and  lead- 
ing them. 

After    a   while,   Benny   and    Luly   had 


186         MARY   GAY'S   VTOUK   IS    WISTEU. 

gummed  all  their  pictures  in,  and  also 
put  in  quite  a  number  of  the  "  reading 
things,"  as  they  called  them,  and  then  they 
brought  the  books  to  show  them  to  Mary. 

When  Mary  saw  them  coming,  she  de- 
termined not  to  find  any  fault  with  the 
work,  unless  she  should  observe  some  evi- 
dence of  gross  carelessness  or  wilful  wrong, 
but  only  to  notice  and  remark  upon  what 
was  right. 

"  If  they  have  made  any  mistakes,"  she 
said  to  herself,  "  or  done  anything  wrong, 
as  no  doubt  they  have,  now  is  not  the  time 
to  tell  them  of  it.  The  time  for  that  will 
be  when  they  are  going  to  work  to  make 
picture-books  again." 

This  was  very  correct  reasoning.  The 
time  for  giving  learners  instruction  how  to 
do  work  right  is  when  they  are  going  to 
beg-in  work,  not  when  they  are  at  the  end 
of  it. 

So  Mary  took  the  books  in  her  hand,  as 
the  children  gave  them  to  her.  She  opened 
Benny's  first. 

"  Look  at  mine  first,"  said  Luly. 

"  No,"  replied  Mary.  "  We  will  look  a1 
Benny's  first,  because  he  is  the  company." 


MAKING  PICTURE-BOOKS.  187 

So  Mary  opened  Benny's  book  and  be- 
gan to  talk  about  the  pictures  and  the 
reading,  and  to  look  at  them  with  great 
apparent  interest  and  pleasure.  "  These 
are  pretty  pictures,"  said  she, — "all  of 
them.  That  boy's  jacket  is  colored  very 
well.  You  have  got  all  the  trunks  of  the 
trees  brown,  and  that  is  just  right.  Here 
is  a  riddle  ;  let  me  read  it." 

Then  she  read  the  riddle. 

So  she  went  on,  turning  over  one  leaf 
after  another,  until  she  had  looked  at  all 
the  pages  which  had  been  filled.  She  then 
took  Luly's  book  and  examined  it  in  the 
same  way,  calling  attention  to  everything 
curious  in  the  pictures,  and  stopping  now 
and  then  to  read  some  anecdote,  or  conun- 
drum, or  little  piece  of  poetry.  Thus, 
although  she  said  nothing  directly  in  com- 
mendation of  the  books,  she  let  the  chil- 
dren see  that  they  were  really  pretty  and 
entertaining,  by  showing  that  she  was  her- 
self pleased  and  entertained  in  looking 
them  over. 

After  she  had  finished  this  examination 
she  gave  the  books  back  into  the  children's 
hands. 


188        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN  WINTER. 

"  Put  yours  away  carefully,  Luly,"  said 
she,  "  and  some  other  rainy  day  I  will  give 
you  some  more  pictures  to  put  in  it,  and 
by-and-by  you  will  get  it  full. 

"  And,  Benny,  I  advise  you  to  take  yours 
home,  and  show  it  to  your  mother." 

"  Yes,"  said  Benny,  "  that  is  just  what  I 
am  going  to  do." 

Toward  evening,  John  came  in  the  sleigh 
to  take  Benny  home.  He  looked  at  the 
two  picture-books  as  Mary  had  done,  and 
seemed  much  interested  and  quite  pleased 
in  examining  the  contents  of  them.  He 
perceived  that  several  of  the  pictures  were 
not.  placed  perfectly  square  upon  the  page, 
and  he  also  noticed  other  defects  and 
imperfections  always  incident  to  first  at- 
tempts of  this  kind  by  young  children. 
He  however  had  the  good  sense  not  to  say 
anything  about  these  things,  and  only 
looked  at  the  pictures  and  read  some  of 
the  riddles  and  conundrums. 

One  of  those  that,  he  read  was  this: 

You  always  see  me  in  the  dark, 
And  hear  me  just  by  saying  hark. 

"  Is  not  that  a  pretty  riddle  ?  "  said  Luly. 


MAKING  PICTURE-BOOKS.  189 

"  Yes,"  said  John.  "  And  here  is  the 
answer  under  it :  the  letter  R." 

«  Yes,"  said  Luly.  «  Only  I  can't  see 
anything  in  the  dark  at  all." 

The  truth  was  that  Luly  had  no  idea  of 
the  meaning  of  the  riddle,  for  as  she  had 
not  yet  learned  to  read,  she  did  not  know 
about  the  letter  r  being  in  the  word  dark. 
What  she  meant  by  its  being  a  pretty  rid- 
dle was,  that  it  sounded  pretty  when  it  was 
read  to  her,  or  when  she  repeated  it, — 
with  its  spirited  rhyme  of  dark  and  hark. 

John  took  Benny  home  pretty  soon,  in 
the  sleigh,  with  his  new  picture-book  safe 
under  his  arrn.  He  did  not  have  to  hold 
the  umbrella  up,  however,  for  the  storm  was 
over,  the  sky  was  clearing  up,  and  it  was 
growing  cold. 


190         MARY   GAY'S   WORK  IN   WINTER. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CONCLUDING    ADVICE. 

SHOULD  any  of  the  children  who  may 
read  this  book  feel  a  desire  to  attempt  for 
themselves  some  of  the  operations  which 
Mary  Gay  and  Luly  performed,  I  have 
some  advice  to  give  them,  which,  if  they 
follow  it,  will  make  it  much  more  probable 
that  they  will  succeed. 

When  you  conclude  to  undertake  any- 
thing of  this  kind,  you  must  plan  your 
work  carefully,  and  make  all  the  necessary 
arrangements  for  it,  before  you  begin. 
Choose  a  good  and  convenient  place  for 
the  work,  consider  carefully  all  that  you 
are  going  to  do  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  operation,  and  think  of  every- 
thing that  you  will  require,  and  see  that  all 
that  is^iecessary  is  provided,  and  arranged 
in  proper  order  upon  the  table  beforehand ; 
so  that  when  you  once  begin,  you  can 


CONCLUDING  ADVICE.  191 

proceed  regularly  and  systematically,  and 
without  hindrance  or  interruption,  to  the 
end. 

While  you  are  at  work,  proceed  slowly 
and  cautiously  with  every  operation,  not 
trying  to  see  how  quick  you  can  do  the 
work,  or  how  ranch  you  get  done,  but 
how  well  you  can  do  it. 

Do  not  be  in  a  hurry  to  have  your  work 
finished.  Perhaps  the  greatest  cause  of 
the  failures  of  children  in  their  mechanical 
undertakings  is  their  impatience  to  have 
what  they  are  making  finished.  Do  each 
day  as  much  as  you  can  do  well,  without 
paying  regard  to  the  time  when  the  work 
will  be  done.  When  it  is  done  you  will 
like  it  all  the  better  for  having  given  plenty 
of  time  to  it. 

Do  not  begin  with  great  undertakings, 
but  try  small  ones  first,  and  attempt  greater 
ones  as  you  find  that  you  improve  in  skill 
and  experience.  All  children,  and  boys 
especially,  are  very  apt  to  plan  their  first 
work  on  too  great  a  scale.  It  is  much 
better  to  be  modest  in  beginnings,  and 
only  attempt  at  the  outset  what  you  can 
accomplish  easily  and  well.  You  can  after- 


192        MARY  GAY'S  WORK  IN   WINTER. 

wards  enlarge  the  sphere  of  your  operations 
as  much  as  you  please. 

Finally,  do  not  allow  your  works  to  be  a 
source  of  inconvenience  or  trouble  to  your 
parents,  or  to  any  other  persons  in  the 
family.  Take  great  care  not  to  soil  or  in- 
jure any  books  or  furniture,  or  make  dis- 
order in  a  room,  or  leave  scraps  and  litter 
for  others  to  remove.  Be  specially  partic- 
ular, when  you  have  done  your  work,  to 
put  everything  back  into  its  place,  and  to 
leave  the  table  and  the  room  in  the  same 
condition  that  you  found  it. 

By  following  these  rules,  you  will  find 
not  only  that  you  will  be  much  more  likely 
to  succeed  in  what  you  undertake,  but 
you  will  work  with  a  much  greater  degree 
of  pleasure  and  satisfaction  while  you  are 
employed  in  the  operation,  and  you  also 
will  enjoy  the  result  much  more  highly, 
when  it  is  at  last  attained. 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last 
date  stamped  below 


10m-ll,'50(2555)470 

^lAATAJlvo-    i    i       «--*       v»  »-*«.» 

LOS  ANGELES 


EZ10 
A13m 
v.l 


